Pubdate: Wed, 02 Nov 2011 Source: 100 Mile House Free Press (CN BC) Contact: 2011 100 Mile House Free Press Website: http://www.100milefreepress.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2143 Author: William Perry PAY OFF HST WITH POT Prohibition doesn't work; in fact, it has cost more than it was worth. In the last 40 years, we've spent significant amounts of money to control the growing and sale of marijuana. It costs a lot to arrest, prosecute, and send them to prison. We need to simply legalize the drug, regulate it and tax it. Such a move would reduce the number of police officers assigned for enforcement, eliminate a huge number of prison beds allocated for drug offenders and add dollars to the public coffers. Legalizing marijuana would be one way to pay off the $2.2-billion shortfall caused by scrapping the Harmonized Sales Tax. William Perry Victoria - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.