Pubdate: Tue, 10 Sep 2002 Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU) Copyright: 2002 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274 Author: Donald Dagenais DELAY ON LEGALIZATION SERVES CRIMINALS The most comical aspect of your Sept. 6 editorial "Don't legalize it" is not that the Senate could propose legalizing marijuana for recreational use but the cavalier fashion in which The Gazette so peremptorily dismisses - not disagrees with - a report that the Canadian people, in the guise of their government institutions, have invested two years in developing. I am also surprised by the inconsistency between your reasons for opposing legalization and those supporting decriminalization.You decry legalization as a form of "encouragement," but few people would argue that simple fines provide as effective a deterrent as criminal prosecution. The end result of any relaxation in laws controlling the consumption of marijuana will be an increase in use, but that increase will be almost exclusively because of the removal of the criminal rather than the civil penalties. What your editorial does not address is the salutary effect decriminalization could have on the delivery of the end product. Currently, the marijuana market is supplied exclusively by criminal organizations, in much the same way that alcohol was controlled by organized crime during the prohibition years in the U.S. The end result, now as then, is that all money generated from the production and sale of a specific commodity is reserved for those willing and able to function outside the law. If decriminalization occurs without legalization, marijuana delivery will remain in the hands of criminals, but consumption will almost certainly increase dramatically. Just what we need: better-funded criminals. Donald Dagenais Montreal - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens