Pubdate: Fri, 17 Sep 2010
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2010 Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.edmontonsun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Author: Russell Barth
Note: Parenthetical remark by the Sun editor, headline by newshawk.

WHY NOT LEGALIZE POT?

If the economy is so important to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, why
spend a billion dollars a year subsidizing by keep pot prices high via
the black market, and the black market via the war on marijuana? Why
spend billions more to build 12 new jails we don't need and fill them
with pot users? Why not legalize pot, save a billion dollars a year,
make an additional $3 billion in annual tax revenue? It would further
reduce crime, increase public health, make the country rich, and free
up the police's time. But no. Instead, Mr. Austerity just changed the
laws to make anything involving marijuana a "serious crime", and is
about to blow billions on a bunch of new jails. Canada just got into
the Inmate-Manufacturing industry, and your kids are the raw
materials. Vote Conservative.

Russell Barth, Ottawa

(Pot issue may come to a head soon, thanks to California.)
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MAP posted-by: Matt