Pubdate: Thu, 07 Dec 2017
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2017 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Gary Grant
Page: A10

GOOD LUCK WITH POT RULES

Re: Legalization of recreational weed unlikely to kill pot black market 
right away, Published online Dec. 4

In trying to push out organized crime from the marijuana trade, Canada
will try to succeed at a task it has failed in other places.

Contraband tobacco is the lesson that Canada, and especially Ontario,
refuses to learn. Illegal cigarettes are a major problem, with about
one third of all cigarettes purchased in Ontario being illegal. The
RCMP has identified 175 criminal gangs involved in the trade, who use
the profits to deal in other illicit activities, including guns, drugs
and human smuggling.

A haphazard approach to addressing this important problem will not
work. In Ontario, where effective anti-contraband measures have yet
to be introduced, contraband levels remain catastrophically high and
have even gotten worse in some parts of the province. Quebec, with mix
of tough laws and resources for police, has seen its contraband rates
cut in half.

Illegal cigarettes don't, like criminal marijuana will not, adhere to
regulations on packaging, labels or age checks.

Tough rules don't matter if criminals offer an easier, cheaper
alternative.

We hope that the government has better luck with marijuana than it's
had with contraband tobacco. And if they do, we hope they'll take
those lessons and apply it to the problem they've put off too long.

Gary Grant,

Spokesperson, National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco
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MAP posted-by: Matt