Pubdate: Thu, 08 May 2003
Source: Aldergrove Star (CN BC)
Copyright: 2003 Central Fraser Valley Star Publishing Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.aldergrovestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/989
Author: Rob Wilton

LEGALIZING POT WILL ONLY INCREASE PROBLEMS

Editor, The Star:

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 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 because it is their bodies. Well, they have the same rights as I 
to not to wear a seat-belt while 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. Pot diminishes 
co-ordination 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 its 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 B.C. 
and the RCMP.

B.C. is known world-wide for this drug and 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, gang-controlled and always will be, as long as 
it's illegal somewhere.

ROB WILTON,

Surrey
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