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Legalizing Cannabis Use Way To Fix Crime Woes
Pubdate: Mon, 16 Jan 2006
Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)
Copyright: 2006 The StarPhoenix
Contact: http://www.canada.com/saskatoon/starphoenix/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/400
Author: Mitch Tarala
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
LEGALIZING CANNABIS USE WAY TO FIX CRIME WOES
Amid all the talk of ending gun crime, violence and gangs, I have yet
to hear anybody offer any real solutions to this problem.
Guns, violence, and gangs are often rightly associated with drugs.
Gun and drug sales provide nearly 100 per cent of funding for gangs.
Gangs need drugs to make money, and they need guns to protect the drugs.
So how do we curb the violence, guns, and drugs? Tougher sentences?
More police? More spending? Absolutely not.
Legalization of drugs, especially cannabis, would deal such a blow to
organized crime that it would nearly destroy it. With a legal,
regulated system for the sale of cannabis and other drugs, there
would be very little funding left for the gangsters.
Legalization would also have a positive effect on the number of the
people addicted to hard drugs such as cocaine and crystal meth, by
removing potential addicts from exposure to these drugs. Most addicts
are pressured into trying addictive substances by traffickers who
only care for the addicts' money.
Billions of dollars spent on fighting an ineffective war on cannabis
could be used to fight the gun trade and to fund addiction treatment
clinics, instead of wasting it on something that will never be stopped.
Why haven't any of our politicians spoken on the issue and the
benefits of ending the prohibition of drugs in Canada? Let's use some
good sense and make some positive changes in our country.
Mitch Tarala
Martensville
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman