Pubdate: Tue, 21 Jan 2003
Source: Langley Advance (CN BC)
Copyright: 2003 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.langleyadvance.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1248
Author: Matthew M. Elrod

DRUGS: UNINFORMED MP DISTURBING

Dear Editor,

I find it disturbing that Alliance MP Randy White could spend half a 
million dollars and two years studying illicit drug policy and yet remain 
so uninformed [White worries about marijuana limits, Dec 18, Langley 
Advance News].

Pondered White, "If you can wander around with 20 to 30 marijuana joints 
for so-called personal use, you have to wonder when personal possession 
becomes trafficking."

When does a wine cellar become a criminal enterprise? How many kegs of beer 
may a person transport in an SUV before becoming a bootlegger? Obviously it 
has little to do with quantity or potential harm.

Possession becomes trafficking when someone sells any quantity of a 
psychoactive substance that cannot be patented and was once unfamiliar to 
caucasians.

Of course, buyers are unlikely to report being "marijuanaed" to the police.

There is no evidence that cannabis prohibition reduces use, cultivation, or 
trafficking, much less the number of "pushers" selling cannabis to high 
school students. The more the federal government attempts to rationalize 
it, the more absurd cannabis prohibition becomes.

Having done the research on our behalf, perhaps White could explain to 
taxpayers why cannabis was prohibited in 1923, and when exactly and how 
cannabis prohibition started making sense.

Matthew M. Elrod Victoria
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom