LEGALIZING POT WOULD CUT-OFF MONEY SUPPLY FOR ORGANIZED CRIME

Your editorial on marijuana legalization raises many important questions.
Unfortunately you forgot to ask the most important one.

Would legalizing and regulating marijuana similarly to wine and liquor and
selling it in the provincial liquor stores stop the flow of marijuana-user
money going to organized crime and as a result, make Canada a safer country?

This one simple legal move could cut off billions of dollars in cash that
now goes into the pockets of organized crime in Canada. U.S. Attorney
General John Ashford has recognized the drugs-terror cashflow link. Isn't
it time we cut off the supply of drug cash going to these organizations?

I believe most Canadians, both users and non-users, would rather have the
government making the money than the organized criminal gangs.

It's just common sense. Let's spend it on our hospitals and our aging
population's rapidly increasing health care needs.

With a reduced marijuana crime workload, Canadians will strongly support
the police spending their time and our tax dollars going after the
genuinely dangerous hard drugs and the criminals dealing them.

The alternative, to follow America's example and turn our free country into
a hard militarized police state, is not a place any true Canadian wants to
live.

We pity them, we envy them, but we don't want to copy their mistakes.

P. Moulante Hautlibre, Quebec