WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL

Editor,

Subject: Pot busts on the rise

You know it's interesting to read about all the pot busts recently in
Saskatchewan. It seems that almost every day police are tearing down
plants, taking homes away from their owners and hauling hefty loads of
marijuana away.

You would almost think in fact that Saskatchewan evidence lockers are
better stocked these days than Amsterdam coffee shops or Marc Emery's
sock drawer.

Considering that police and government don't seem to be able to
measure the effectiveness of prohibitive measures such as this, I have
to wonder what the impact has been. Is anyone finding it more
difficult to get marijuana these days? I'm not hearing such to be the
case?

Perhaps we should look into the one thing we can measure for certain
and figure out if it's worth it. The financial cost.

It's nice that we have police charging ahead to bust mostly peaceful
criminals who probably have a nasty record of accidentally stepping on
caterpillars but one has to wonder if the millions we spend on this
task wouldn't be better spent sending police after criminals that
actually have a potential to harm us.

I understand that it's much more difficult to go after a violent knife
wielding gang member but perhaps leaving the pot smoker alone for a
while and actually dealing with that instead would be a little more
sensible, no?

Ethan Erkiletian,

President,

Saskatchewan Marijuana Party