Pubdate: Mon, 25 Oct 2004
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2004 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: William Tate
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

PROHIBITIONISTS GIVE CRIMINALS THEIR POWER

Thank you for your series of articles on organized crime in B.C. What they 
make crystal clear is that it is not marijuana, heroin or any other drug 
that has created their power, wealth and influence, but rather smug, 
self-righteous prohibitionists.

If tea and coffee were banned, and marijuana and other drugs legalized, 
these gangs would become coffee and tea merchants, in short order. Just as 
in the U.S. during the '20s, with Al Capone and his gang, it wasn't the 
booze that made him powerful, but its prohibition.

People will have their pleasures and pursuits in a free society, no matter 
how influential the smug, self-satisfied prohibitionists become.

William Tate,
Victoria. 
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