Pubdate: Wed, 15 Apr 2009
Source: Coquitlam Now, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009Lower Mainland Publishing Group, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.thenownews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1340
Author: E.W. Bopp
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n423/a03.html

LEGALIZATION WOULD PROVIDE A REAL 'STIMULUS' PACKAGE

Re: "Legalizing pot would put gangs out of business," letter, Friday, April 10.

Hurrah for letter writer Dot Davies-Fuhrman, who has found the 
"truth" that so long has escaped us all. Legalize marijuana and other 
drugs and, presto, gangs and gang violence would disappear virtually 
overnight -- and save us billions in the bargain.

But that's not all. In her enthusiasm, Ms. Davies-Fuhrman missed the 
collateral benefit of having solved B.C.'s problem of declining 
tourism from south of the border and elsewhere. Just think of the 
tourism potential of a mass influx of drug-deprived folks descending 
on the True North, Free and Legally Drugged, pouring untold 
additional billions of much-needed tourist dollars into our ailing 
economy -- with many of them undoubtedly wishing to stay permanently.

Indeed, that's the kind of "stimulus" (pun intended) that would 
really help us all get through the economic recession with a "buzz."

And while we're at it, with Canada's all-purpose Charter of Rights 
and Freedoms to the "rescue," the folks so intent on legalizing drugs 
miss no opportunity to point out that certain charter liberties, such 
as doing drugs, somehow are crucial in protecting us from the 
authoritative tendencies of the state and thusly prevent us from 
being plunged into the grasp of a police state. Wow!

E.W. Bopp,

Tsawwassen
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