Pubdate: Sat, 05 Mar 2005 Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON) Copyright: 2005, Canoe Limited Partnership. Contact: http://www.canoe.com/NewsStand/TorontoSun/home.html Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457 Author: Dennis Choptiany Note: Parenthetical remark by the Sun editor, headline by MAP PROHIBITION CAUSED THE TRAGEDY It is time that the federal government stopped replaying the same dream-world scenario that was used when the sale of liquor was prohibited and finally wake up to the reality that the only way to control the use of drugs is to legalize and regulate them. There can be no doubt that if marijuana was legalized, there would be four more RCMP officers carrying out their duties, thousands of police officers would be available to pursue serious criminals, the drug underworld would lose billions of non-taxable dollars, governments would reap millions in taxes (from the legal sale of pot) and there would be thousands more Canadians without criminal records. The time of dithering is over. It's time to act responsibly and phase in the legalization of drugs, starting with marijuana. Dennis Choptiany Markham (There's a big difference in legalizing possession compared to legalizing grow-ops) - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin