Pubdate: Fri, 07 May 2004
Source: Abbotsford Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2004 The Abbotsford Times
Contact:  http://www.abbotsfordtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1009
Author: Christina Toth
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

MAKE POT PAY FOR HEALTH

Last month Langley-Abbotsford Conservative MP Randy White said he had a 
list of 80 to 90 people who were convicted cannabis growers who were also 
collecting welfare. He said those people should pay, with proceeds going to 
drug treatment.

Great idea - pot growers should pay, taxes and business fees as legal 
operations. Communities like ours could tap into the billions in revenue 
made in the industry and apply those funds to much-needed treatment for 
people addicted to alcohol and hard drugs.

The millions saved in police, court and jail costs would be better used for 
addiction prevention and treatment, in health care, schools and on our 
roads. Pot would be grown in greenhouses, not in basement suites.

It's plain stupid of us to not take advantage of the entrepreneurial power 
of cannabis growers - think of the tourist potential in Abbotsford, 
attracting Americans with cash to cannabis cafes along the border.

Organized crime would lose a big source of revenue to legitimate operators 
as the price would drop and we may even see fewer young men shooting each 
other over drug wars.

As more people realize the damage done in the last 80 years by a policy of 
prohibition, it's no longer a question of whether that policy will end but 
when.

The Canadian government has taken tentative steps toward legalizing grass, 
when in Dec. 9, 2002, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon suggested 
decriminalizing pot.

Plenty of reasoned government committees have supported decriminalizing 
marijuana, including one vice-chaired by White. A 2002 Senate report on 
drugs said cannabis prohibition was ineffective and it should be regulated, 
like booze. The risks being equal to alcohol or tobacco, the Senate 
committee noted, "the main social costs of cannabis are a result of public 
policy choices, primarily its continued criminalization, while the 
consequences of its use represent a small fraction of the social costs 
attributable to the use of illegal drugs."

Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell, former RCMP officer and coroner, wants pot 
legal.

"I think we should legalize it, we should tax it to the max and take all 
the money that we get from it and put it straight into health care," 
Campbell said. Mere decriminalization would not deter large-scale pot 
producers, who will risk arrest despite tougher penalties.

This is not just a crazy West Coast idea.

On April 24, an Ottawa Citizen editorial noted the U.S. commission looking 
at Sept. 11 causes found the Federal Bureau of Investigation was "too busy 
fighting the never-ending war on drugs," instead of keeping watch on 
terrorists. The newspaper wrote: "One of the terrible costs of the war on 
drugs is the good that could be done if the money and manpower lavished on 
this futile fight were instead devoted to other priorities. Every officer 
doing buy-and-busts is an officer not going after thieves, rapists and 
murderers."

On a smaller scale the same blindness afflicts us at home. In a March 12 
Times article, Mission RCMP Corp. Murray Power said the 3,000-plant 
operation they busted days earlier was "the most efficient and effective 
operation I've ever seen." Power said chasing down the increasing numbers 
of grow-ops was taking police away from other duties.

"General duty officers are getting double the workload and our community is 
getting half the service," he said.

Yet recently Abbotsford Coun. Mark Warawa suggested police should crack 
down on businesses - legal businesses - that sell greenhouse supplies and 
rolling papers.

Prohibition of cannabis creates more crime, not less, yet that's what 
Conservative policies would perpetuate.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said knowledge is the antidote to fear. We need to 
educate ourselves about the effects of prohibition and question the sanity 
of continuing the policy. We need to demand to know how much the "war on 
drugs" costs us in Abbotsford.

The war against the hysteria and half-truths that support prohibition is 
not a spectator sport.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom