Pubdate: Fri, 11 Apr 2003
Source: Langley Advance (CN BC)
Copyright: 2003 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.langleyadvance.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1248
Author: Rob Wilton
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

DRUGS: LEGALIZATION IS NO SOLUTION

Dear Editor,

People who think legalizing marijuana is a solution to anything can't see 
past their habit.

Marijuana is grown for one reason: profit. Legalizing it in Canada will 
change nothing. An estimated 2.6 billion dollars worth of pot reaches the 
United States every year from Surrey alone.

Regulation will have no effect on growers dealing illegally around the 
world for huge profits and illegal trade. As long as there is a market 
outside Canada there will be criminals evading police to supply it and fill 
their pockets with tax free millions.

Legalizing it would be a law enforcement nightmare.

Look at the legal tobacco trade. Cheap cigarettes from eastern Canada and 
the U.S. are being smuggled into western Canada, fueled by profit. That is 
thousands of dollars for cigarettes compared to billions for marijuana 
south of the border.

Legalization will only compound problems already facing police and 
communities. Why add to the social and criminal problems associated with 
alcohol for a noisy few?

Some short-sighted people believe they have a right to consume whatever 
they want. Like not wearing a seat belt driving, or a helmet while riding a 
motorcycle, smoking pot is not an activity isolated to the user.

The U.S. department of health reports that in 1998, 77,000 people were 
admitted to emergency rooms with marijuana-related problems. Marijuana 
diminishes coordination and contains 400 known chemicals, including four 
times the cancer-causing tar of cigarettes. Continued use is damaging to 
other systems such as the lungs, brain, and immune systems.

In an age when governments are winning multiple billions in compensation 
settlements from tobacco companies, why is this even a discussion? It's 
such a bad idea on so many levels, it's nonsensical even to consider it.

This drug is not harmless. Marijuana is used to obtain guns, cocaine, and 
cash to finance methamphetamine labs. Police are currently investigating 60 
homicides related to marijuana according to the Solicitor General of BC and 
the RCMP.

BC is known world-wide for this drug. The profits are too high for 
organized crime to ignore, and the cost to society is too high for us to 
ignore.

Marijuana is big business and always will be, as long as it's illegal 
somewhere.

Rob Wilton, Surrey
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager