News (Media Awareness Project) - CN ON: PUB LTE: War On Cannabis Diverts Resources |
| Title: | CN ON: PUB LTE: War On Cannabis Diverts Resources |
| Published On: | 2002-06-08 |
| Source: | Guelph Mercury (CN ON) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-01-23 04:49:01 |
WAR ON CANNIBIS DIVERTS RESOURCES
Dear Editor - Ever since the RCMP declared war on home cannabis growers a
few years ago, the amount of heroin they have seized has dropped by more
than half, as their own 2001 Drug Situation in Canada report shows.
According to the statistics from the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, in
1999 one in 35 Grade 8 students in Ontario had tried heroin in the previous
year, or 2.8 per cent. These are 13- and 14-year-old kids, and the
equivalent of one student in every class had tried heroin in the previous
year. The situation was insane then, and since then the RCMP have more than
halved its efforts against heroin in favour of going after a plant. That is
one of the worst public policy decisions I have ever heard.
Statistics from Holland's Trimbos Institute for the same year (1999) peg
their rate for 15- and 16-year-old teens at less than one in 1,000 (less
than .01 per cent) having tried heroin in their entire lives. I guess Dutch
police have time to spend going after the criminals who sell junk to kids,
while our police are more interested in raiding Compassion Clubs that
provide medicine to the sick, and greedy home gardeners.
Notably, statistics from the CCSA and the Trimbos Institute show that
approximately twice as many teens use cannabis in Canada as their peers in
Holland in every age bracket under the age of 18. Looks like their police
have the resources to keep an eye on that as well, while ours obviously do
not, despite our per capita spending on law enforcement being significantly
more than theirs.
You really have to wonder what is going on in the Solicitor General's
department under MacAuley -- did he really OK a shift of resources by the
RCMP from heroin to cannabis so large that it resulted in heroin seizures
dropping by more than half, at a time when polls showed that around half of
all Canadians want cannabis legalized? Or does the RCMP leave him in the
dark? Does this have something to do with all the American Drug Enforcement
Agency offices opening across Canada in the last year? It is time someone
asked him what is going on in his department.
Chris Donald
Dartmouth, NS
Dear Editor - Ever since the RCMP declared war on home cannabis growers a
few years ago, the amount of heroin they have seized has dropped by more
than half, as their own 2001 Drug Situation in Canada report shows.
According to the statistics from the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, in
1999 one in 35 Grade 8 students in Ontario had tried heroin in the previous
year, or 2.8 per cent. These are 13- and 14-year-old kids, and the
equivalent of one student in every class had tried heroin in the previous
year. The situation was insane then, and since then the RCMP have more than
halved its efforts against heroin in favour of going after a plant. That is
one of the worst public policy decisions I have ever heard.
Statistics from Holland's Trimbos Institute for the same year (1999) peg
their rate for 15- and 16-year-old teens at less than one in 1,000 (less
than .01 per cent) having tried heroin in their entire lives. I guess Dutch
police have time to spend going after the criminals who sell junk to kids,
while our police are more interested in raiding Compassion Clubs that
provide medicine to the sick, and greedy home gardeners.
Notably, statistics from the CCSA and the Trimbos Institute show that
approximately twice as many teens use cannabis in Canada as their peers in
Holland in every age bracket under the age of 18. Looks like their police
have the resources to keep an eye on that as well, while ours obviously do
not, despite our per capita spending on law enforcement being significantly
more than theirs.
You really have to wonder what is going on in the Solicitor General's
department under MacAuley -- did he really OK a shift of resources by the
RCMP from heroin to cannabis so large that it resulted in heroin seizures
dropping by more than half, at a time when polls showed that around half of
all Canadians want cannabis legalized? Or does the RCMP leave him in the
dark? Does this have something to do with all the American Drug Enforcement
Agency offices opening across Canada in the last year? It is time someone
asked him what is going on in his department.
Chris Donald
Dartmouth, NS
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