Pubdate: Thu, 20 Apr 2000
Date: 04/20/2000
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Author: Chuck Beyer
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n508/a03.html

Any problems associated with marijuana arise because the government
has abdicated its responsibility to regulate an industry that produces
a product that the majority of Canadians want decriminalized.  The
role of regulator has by proxy been given to organized crime.

It is time to consider ways to tax the product so that it pays for
health care and schools, rather than using our precious tax dollars
for jail cells, green teams, helicopters and hundreds of police
officers looking for plants while murders, home invasions and other
violent crimes are unsolved.

Chuck Beyer,
Victoria