Pubdate: Tue, 05 Aug 2003
Source: Abbotsford News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2003 Hacker Press Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.abbynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1155
Author: Matthew M. Elrod
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1163/a07.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

ON THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF PROHIBITION, IT'S A CASH CROP

Editor, The News:

While I sympathize with Andrew Holota, whose former home was damaged by
cannabis growers, ('Our house, in the middle of the plants,' Viewpoint July
29), I believe his anger toward our courts is misdirected.

In an effort to "send a message to the kids" we have abdicated the
manufacturing and distribution of cannabis to the underworld. In a crusade
for a "drug free" utopia, we have made this easily-grown herb literally
worth its weight in gold.

When we prohibited cannabis in 1923, then rumoured to be used by black jazz
musicians to seduce white women, few Canadians had even heard of the plant.
Now we celebrate the 80th anniversary of cannabis prohibition with our
schools awash in pot, and the surest way to score a bag is to ask any
teenager.

Some say we export more ganja than we consume and the forbidden herb has
become our most lucrative cash crop.

The press and the police regale us with tales of suburban homes earning
"somewhere between $2 million and $4 million" tax free, and how any moron
with a closet or spare bedroom can get rich quick with a few parts from any
hardware store.

Some of us naturally ask ourselves what we are waiting for. Maybe we too
should jump on the drug war gravy train before they legalize it and put the
growers, and growbusters, out of business.

If Ottawa maintained alcohol prohibition to win the political support of
frightened parents, police unions and anti-booze activists, ignoring stacks
of scholarly works, government-commissioned studies and committee reports
strongly advising against it, and our communities became predictably plagued
with gangland warfare, home invasions, fires and damaged homes from illicit
distilleries and breweries, would we blame the courts?

Matthew M. Elrod

Victoria
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