Pubdate: Mon, 09 Mar 2009
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2009 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/feedback/?form=lettersToTheEditorForm
Website: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Eugene Oscapella
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n269/a02.html

PROHIBITION AND PROFIT

The Globe and Mail says Canada and the U.S. "are the reason for the 
existence" of drug cartels in Mexico, calling them "essentially a 
service industry for Canadian and American users" (As Much Our 
Problem - editorial, March 6). It's true that if there were no users, 
the cartels could not profit from the trade.

However, rather than blaming users, look to the governments that have 
enacted prohibitionist drug laws and scarred nations around the world 
as a result. Prohibition has hugely inflated the value of outlawed 
drugs for producer and transit countries - and for the cartels that 
exploit the black market that we in our prohibitionist folly have created.

End prohibition and start intelligent regulation of drugs if you are 
really serious about dealing with them. Both producer and consumer 
countries would benefit greatly from the reduction in violence that 
would follow. And maybe then we could focus on the real issue with 
drugs: why some people need to use them in the first place.

EUGENE OSCAPELLA

Ottawa

lawyer, co-founder, Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy,
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom