Pubdate: Fri, 27 Feb 2004
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2004, Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://www.fyiottawa.com/ottsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: Jody Pressman
Note: Parenthetical remark by the Sun editor, headline by newshawk

Letter Of The Day

A CASH- AND POWER-GRAB FOR POLICE

Re "Cops on 20 year high" (Feb. 24): Let's be honest about what 
decriminalization amounts to. A feeble expression of an overwhelming desire 
to change the way Canada deals with marijuana. The argument that less 
enforcement will occur doesn't hold water when you take into account that 
most police do not enforce this law because of its harsh sanction currently 
as well as the case studies in Australia which have indicated more police 
enforcement follows efforts to "decriminalize."

If we really want to take marijuana away from the criminals and reduce 
police and court expenditures on the benign issues such as 
marijuana-related offences, we should truly decriminalize marijuana by 
regulating it and taxing it.

The current bill is sold to Canadians as an improvement, but it's not an 
improvement for the people whom this bill will disproportionately affect: 
Youth, students, visible minorities, single-parent households and the sick. 
The so-called "decriminalization bill" decriminalizes nothing and amounts 
to a cash- and power-grab for police. Real reform this is not, and 
Canadians deserve better.

Jody Pressman

Fill the Hill

Event Co-ordinator

(We figure we should try it; if it doesn't work, we can try something else)
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman