LEGALIZE MARIJUANA OR TOUGHEN UP THE SENTENCES

It's hardly surprising some young people get hooked on gambling, booze,
tobacco or marijuana when you look at the mangled messages coming from
politicians.

During recent months, local police and firefighters have risked their lives
investigating home-grow marijuana businesses and putting out fires in
Waterloo Region houses where illegal hydro hookups create deadly conditions.

Fast-buck pot farmers, who think nothing about exposing their children to
fire and chemical hazards, are now setting explosive and electrical booby
traps in London and Hamilton to discourage police and thieves.

While lives are put at risk, hypocritical politicians undermine police with
a wimpy approach to pot laws and judges give growers lenient sentences.

Growers then return to the lucrative business of marijuana hobby farming in
a society that -- recognizing pot laws are unenforceable -- seems to lean
toward legalization of dope.

Any young person with half a brain would have noticed the dopey political
histrionics apparent earlier this year as federal politicians gumflapped
about passing a law that allowed 200 Canadians with painful medical
ailments to smoke marijuana.

They pretended to make pot legal for people like Catherine Devries of
Kitchener but then, every time she tries to get growers to send her pot,
postal officials or police seize her medicine.

Then there's the gambling issue.

Regional politicians are this week considering a report that says profits
from casinos and lotteries sponsored by Queen's Park should be used to fund
educational programs for children and teens who have developed gambling
problems.

They have problems because their families and governments view gambling as
innocent, recreational activity.

David Tsubouchi, chairman of the provincial management board, said recently
his Tory government might increase gambling activity and profits to help
pay soaring health costs and an expected $5-billion deficit.

You will recall it was Tsubouchi who cut welfare rates by 22 per cent when
he was social services minister.

He's also the insensitive clown who said welfare recipients could buy
dented cans of tuna if they were hungry and short of cash.

No wonder he supports expansion of insidious gambling operations -- a pipe
dream government-backed fraud that cons poor people into wasting their
meagre incomes.

Governments can't be a little bit pregnant when it comes to gambling or
marijuana.

It's hypocritical to outlaw pot and then make millions of dollars on
tobacco and booze taxes.

And it's morally bankrupt to promote lotteries and slots that create an
additional tax on the poor and addiction problems for their children.

Governments should get out of the seedy business of gambling.

If they're serious about banning marijuana, they should enforce existing
laws and toughen up court sentences for growers.

If not, for the sake of children, cops and firefighters, they should
legalize dope and sell it at liquor or beer stores.

If ever that was done, politicians like Tsubouchi would no doubt justify
how marijuana profits could be used to bail out our cash-starved health
system when potheads seek medical help for the eventual consequences of
their destructive addiction.