Pubdate: Sun, 29 Aug 2004
Source: Surrey Leader (CN BC)
Copyright: 2004 Surrey Leader
Contact:  http://www.surreyleader.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1236
Author: Chris Foulds
Note: Chris Foulds is a reporter at The Abbotsford News.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?188 (Outlaw Bikers)

CRIMINALS AND COPS AGREE ON POT PROHIBITION

Yet more proof that the powers-that-be, from the mayor of Abbotsford to the 
solicitor general in Victoria to the RCMP commissioner in Ottawa, remain 
stuck in a fantasy world where "getting tough" on marijuana growers will 
eventually eradicate B.C.'s number-one industry.

Abbotsford has jumped on the failed war-on-drugs bandwagon whole-hog, 
forwarding a resolution to the annual Union of B.C.

Municipalities convention that will do absolutely nothing to put a dent in 
the number of pot-growing operations in the city.

Coupled with this useless resolution - one that calls for stiffer sentences 
for those growing and selling weed - comes the argument from Abbotsford 
Mayor Mary Reeves that boggles the mind for the fact it makes no sense 
whatsoever.

Reeves says she is not in favour of decriminaliztion or legalization of 
marijuana or any other drug.

"At the end of the day, this is all about organized crime," Reeves says. 
"You can decriminalize until the cows come home, but it's an epidemic."

Actually, if you decriminalize - or better yet, legalize - marijuana, you 
immediately cut out organized crime from that crop, a crop from which 
criminals have been profiting since pot was first banned in the 1923 Opium 
and Drug Act.

On the other hand, a certain way to ensure organized crime remains in 
business is to follow the futility espoused by Reeves, Solicitor General 
Rich Coleman and RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, which is to 
emulate the long-failed U.S. 'war on drugs" approach and continue to 
foolishly apply it to the benign plant.

It's simple supply and demand. Regardless of the law, demand will remain 
strong. Cut into the supply via millions wasted on more cops busting more 
grow-ops and more court dates and more "criminals" going behind bars, and 
the gig gets more and more lucrative.

Every so often police brass will hold press conferences - as they did last 
week in Vancouver with the not-so-new news that, surprise, Hells Angels and 
other organized crime groups are involved in grow-ops - claiming there is a 
crisis and demanding tougher legislation and longer jail sentences for 
those caught growing pot.

Apparently, it escapes these prohibitionist dinosaurs that the very laws in 
place are the very reason the pockets of the Hells Angels and others are 
bulging.

Granted, Reeves, Coleman and others of that generation are plagued by the 
misinformation doled out in their day; alleged "facts" that today are seen 
by rational folk as the folly that are - more of the Reefer Madness nonsense.

What Reeves, Coleman and other deluded prohibitionists need to do is read a 
copy of the 1972 Le Dain Commission Report, the 2002 Senate Special 
Committee on Illegal Drugs Report and various other studies that have 
consistently called for the legal regulation of the so-called evil weed.

Of course, the absurdity of this entire farce is that is creates strange 
bedfellows indeed; for it can be argued that prohibition is the preferred 
choice of criminals and cops alike.

Why society cannot see this remains a mystery.

* Chris Foulds is a reporter at The Abbotsford News.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D