Pubdate: Sun, 12 Apr 2009
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Robert McInnes
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n392/a08.html

POT BILL WORTH CONSIDERING

I was delighted to learn of MP Keith Martin's private member's bill 
to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. I'm old enough to 
remember the U.S.'s prohibition of alcohol, with its rum-runners, 
bootleggers and gun-blazing gangsters.

I'm not about to smoke pot -- my only mind-altering drug is caffeine 
- -- but I've come to realize that the U.S.-style "war on drugs" is 
just as big a disaster as some of their other wars.

Recently, several Latin American leaders have said that the U.S.'s 
war on drugs was killing their people and it was time for a new 
direction -- harm reduction. Martin's bill is a small first step in 
the right direction for Canada.

Robert McInnes

Victoria
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