"...DON'T CRITICISE IT"

Re: It's about drugs! (June 10, 2002).

Recently, Dr. Patrick Smith of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
told the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs that "if we discovered
three drugs today, and they were alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, there
isn't an expert in the country who would recommend that marijuana be the
one that is banned based on individual and societal harm."

Marijuana is known to be safer than alcohol or tobacco. Why should it be
illegal?

If there isn't an expert in the country who would recommend that marijuana
be the one that is banned based on individual and societal harm, then the
prohibition of cannabis is a mistake.

While the war on drugs has allowed soft drugs like marijuana to be dealt
with in conjunction with heroin and cocaine, increasing the chance of pot
smokers to "overlap,"cannabis prohibition creates problems where there need
not be any. The policy which prohibits cannabis is also the catalyst
fueling marijuana-growing operations. The consequence thereof exposes the
public's safety to increasingly dangerous situations, which cannot be
justified.

Government could use more effective means to safeguard the public while
striking a major victory against black market profiteers and vernal
marijuana usage by regulating and taxing marijuana like alcohol.

WAYNE PHILLIPS