Pubdate: Wed, 04 Jun 2003
Source: Mississauga News (CN ON)
Copyright: The Mississauga News 2003
Contact:  http://www.mississauganews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/268
Author: Jonathan Colford

MIXED MESSAGE

Dear Editor.

So let me get this straight. They are replacing jail with fines for 15 
grams or less of marijuana and spending $240 million on a program to get 
kids to stop smoking it.

Unless they're going to crack down and issue fines left and right to pay 
for this, I smell another Liberal boondoggle here and some fat ad contracts 
for someone to develop the "Say no to pot" campaign.

In some twisted way I think this could actually reduce consumption because 
if the police aren't arresting kids because no one feels getting caught 
smoking a joint is worth a criminal record, then they'll probably start 
giving the fines, because anyone who walks around with 15 joints can afford 
the $100 (or their daddy can).

So long as we still say doing drugs is wrong and against the law, I'm fine 
with the fines. The goal is curbing consumption, and if the fines can do 
that, whereas jail has failed, then great. If the cops aren't giving out 
the fines even, well, it's another Liberal waste of money and time.

Jonathan Colford

Toronto
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MAP posted-by: Alex