Pubdate: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 Source: Burnaby Now, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2005 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc. Contact: http://www.burnabynow.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1592 Author: Russell Barth Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n200/a02.html NEW DRUG POLICY NEEDED Dear Editor: Re: Green team on the job, Burnaby NOW, Jan. 29. Grow ops do present a threat to the community, but then so did "bathtub gin mills" in the 1920s and 1930s. There were gang shootouts and robberies and a full-fledged gang war on the streets of many cities. Al Capone became the most powerful man in Chicago because he had more money, more men and more guns than the police. How was that situation fixed? Regulation. Alcohol is now produced by professional companies who pay tax, not gangs. There is quality control and age restrictions. There is billions in tax revenue. Anyone who thinks that prohibition is a better policy than regulation is either a criminal or a fool. Prohibition is a system that subsidizes organized crime to the tune of about $12 billion every year, endangers Canadians, makes for huge police budgets and sweeping police powers, makes drugs easier for kids to get than either alcohol or tobacco, wastes valuable police time and resources, reduces the civil rights and civil liberties of Canadians, helps no one, clogs our courts, fills our jails, ruins tens of thousands of lives every year, costs nearly $2 billion every year and seems to have no end in sight. Prohibition has never worked and never will. Regulation of cannabis growing would licence growers and subject them to inspection, do far more to keep drugs away from kids, free up police resources, give police increased powers of investigation and enforcement, increase firefighter safety, increase general safety in the community, eliminate hydro theft, generate $2 billion in annual tax revenue, seriously damage the black market and make thousands of jail cells available for real criminals. Grow-ops would be in greenhouses, industrial parks, or out on farms, not in residential neighborhoods. But our government doesn't want that. They want more of the same failed drug war. It makes me wonder just which side of the law they are really on. Russell Barth, Educators For Sensible Drug Policy, Ottawa - --- MAP posted-by: Josh