Pubdate: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 Source: Olympian, The (WA) Copyright: 2002, The Olympian Contact: http://www.theolympian.com/forms/lettrfrm.shtml Website: http://www.theolympian.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/319 Author: David L. Edwards ABANDON FUTILE WAR AGAINST MARIJUANA Hurray! We've broken the back of the Canadian drug trade. Is the final victory in the drug war just around the corner? In an operation that began in January 2000, we have squandered manpower -- over 300 U.S. and Canadian officers from the FBI, DEA, customs, border patrol and Mounties who could have been chasing terrorists -- in order to nab a few measly tons of marijuana and a couple of millions in cash in Quebec and British Columbia. Forty-seven people were arrested. Basically we just created 47 new job opportunities for the hundreds of people waiting to fill their shoes. Does anyone really believe that this wasteful two-year sting is going to have the least impact on the availability or street price of marijuana in the United States? In Western Europe -- England, Portugal, Spain, Holland, Italy -- the opposite trend prevails: turning a blind eye on enforcing penalties for simple cannabis possession. Enforcement resources are thus freed up to go after dangerous hard drugs, and cannabis use has not gone through the roof. If we taxed and regulated marijuana for adults as we do alcohol, we could free up personnel to pursue terrorists and hard drugs, and we could use the tax revenues to provide treatment where appropriate, plus honest drug education. How many million more adults do we have to arrest and jail before we can declare victory and abandon this futile war against marijuana? David L. Edwards, Olympia - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom