WEED WAR MONEY BETTER SPENT

Editor:

Re: Cops declare war on weed

I was disappointed to read that Mayor Hames is throwing another $320,000
into that bottomless money pit called the war on pot. Sadly, this is only
the tip of the financial iceberg.

The new Green Team will generate hundreds of new cases, and taxpayers will
get stuck with the tab for prosecuting the pot gardeners in our
overburdened courts. Many growers are on welfare, so the taxpayers will pay
the defence costs as well. When jail time is ordered the cost to taxpayers
is about $70,000 per year to incarcerate each marijuana inmate. The true
cost of Hames' decision is many millions of scarce public dollars being
wasted for another futile attempt to suppress B.C.'s cannabis culture. This
one won't succeed either.

Where did our government learn to set priorities? Wake up Mayor Hames, 80
per cent of B.C. wants decriminalization. Let's overgrow the government.

NORM SIEFKEN

Chilliwack