Pubdate: Wed, 04 Mar 2009 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2009 The Ottawa Citizen Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326 Author: Russell Barth Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n252/a02.html DRUG TRADE IS ALSO A CASH COW FOR POLICE AND LAWYERS RE: There's a downside to drug legalization, March 3. The biggest downside to drug legalization is that it would undermine the RCMP's long propaganda war against marijuana. Science and history show that regulation is the cure to the problems caused by prohibition. One need look no further than the 2002 Senate Committee Report on Drugs for proof. If that isn't enough, then look at the disastrous situation in the U.S., with the most incarcerated population in the history of the world, or Mexico, where tough enforcement of drug laws has sparked a cartel war, a bloodbath that has cost thousands of lives. The Netherlands has a lower crime rate and a lower drug use rate than either Canada or the U.S., and the troubles they do have stem from the laws being a half-measure, rather than full regulation. If liberal pot laws are failing the Dutch, it is because they didn't go far enough. But police don't want the "War On Drugs" to ever end because it gives them all the leverage they need to harass the young, the poor and people with non-regulation hairstyles. It makes their job relevant and never ending. Prohibition is a growth industry --as big a cash cow for police and lawyers and jailers as it is for gangsters. They are two sides of the same coin. Russell Barth Ottawa Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin