ABANDON FUTILE WAR AGAINST MARIJUANA

Hurray! We've broken the back of the Canadian drug trade. Is the final
victory in the drug war just around the corner?

In an operation that began in January 2000, we have squandered manpower --
over 300 U.S. and Canadian officers from the FBI, DEA, customs, border
patrol and Mounties who could have been chasing terrorists -- in order to
nab a few measly tons of marijuana and a couple of millions in cash in
Quebec and British Columbia.

Forty-seven people were arrested. Basically we just created 47 new job
opportunities for the hundreds of people waiting to fill their shoes.

Does anyone really believe that this wasteful two-year sting is going to
have the least impact on the availability or street price of marijuana in
the United States?

In Western Europe -- England, Portugal, Spain, Holland, Italy -- the
opposite trend prevails: turning a blind eye on enforcing penalties for
simple cannabis possession. Enforcement resources are thus freed up to go
after dangerous hard drugs, and cannabis use has not gone through the roof.

If we taxed and regulated marijuana for adults as we do alcohol, we could
free up personnel to pursue terrorists and hard drugs, and we could use the
tax revenues to provide treatment where appropriate, plus honest drug
education.

How many million more adults do we have to arrest and jail before we can
declare victory and abandon this futile war against marijuana?

David L. Edwards, Olympia