Pubdate: Thu, 01 Dec 2011
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2011 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: William Perry

LEGALIZE, CONTROL DRUGS TO HIT AT CRIMINALS

Drugs should be legalized, taxed, and regulated. Outlawing drugs 
promotes organized crime by providing revenue generating avenues such 
as drug production, trafficking, and distribution. The demand for 
illegal drugs is extremely high. This assures an endless drug supply 
that governments have been ineffective in stopping. The Canadian 
government spends tremendous amounts of money each year in efforts to 
stop illegal drug activities. The legalization of drugs provides tax 
revenue for the government, ensures drugs are safer and eliminates a 
major source of organized crime revenue.

Legal drugs can be taxed and regulated; illegal drugs cannot. Illegal 
drugs are similar to the days of Prohibition when the cost of 
enforcing prohibition was high, and the lack of tax revenues on 
alcohol affected government coffers.

The cost of enforcing drug laws is extremely high and very 
ineffective. Taxed and regulated drugs provide income for the 
government and assure the drugs are safer due to government 
regulation. As a former police officer I am a supporter of Law 
Enforcement Against Prohibition, an international organization of 
criminal justice professionals who bear personal witness to the 
wasteful futility and harms of our current drug policies.

Our combined experience on the front lines of the "war on drugs" has 
led us to call for a repeal of prohibition and its replacement with a 
tight system of legalized regulation, which will cripple the violent 
cartels and street dealers who control the current illegal market.

William Perry

Victoria
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