Pubdate: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Copyright: 2001, The Globe and Mail Company Contact: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Forum: http://forums.theglobeandmail.com/ Author: DAVID d'APOLLONIA DOPEY POLICY Dartmouth, N.S. -- Attorney-General Anne McLellan says she is prepared to put more money toward fighting illicit, recreational drug use. Her comments were in response to a report issued by the UN International Narcotics Control Board, highly critical of Canada's so-called lax antidrug efforts, in particular regarding cannabis. The last thing Canada needs is to waste money on American-style drug interdiction methods that have done absolutely nothing to prevent drug use. How about spending more money on health care and education? Prohibition just doesn't work. In fact, here is one case where the so-called "cure" is worse than the "disease." For almost 70 years Canadian law has criminalized drug use in an attempt to control the appetites of citizens. It's time to change our obsolete thinking and dump the excessive, corrupt practices of the War on Drugs and its unjust policies, better known as Prohibition. It never worked to prevent alcohol use and it certainly doesn't stop, prevent or lessen cannabis use. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry F