Pubdate: Fri, 21 Jan 2011
Source: Burnaby Newsleader (CN BC)
Copyright: 2011 Russell Barth
Contact:  http://www.burnabynewsleader.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1315
Author: Russell Barth
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n1055/a07.html

For shame

Re: Police seizing homes, cars, to deter crime (NewsLeader, Dec. 22)

The only people the cops are "hurting" are the ones who get caught.
The other 95-98 per cent of pot growers, meth makers and drug dealers
simply profit off the increased business that keeps coming their way.

With every bust, with every new sanction, the police are subsidizing
the guys they don't catch--and they know it. This leads me to wonder
just which side of the law the cops are really on.

Prohibition has never been a "deterrent." There is nowhere in the
history of earth where prohibition has been successful. The huge
tax-free profits available in a climate of prohibition is, in fact,
the very thing that makes the business so attractive.

Prohibition isn't a "deterrent", it is a facilitator, and an
instigator. All studies show that increased enforcement causes
increased violence and activity. Cops know this too, so they keep
pouring gas on the fire so that they can justify more cops, more toys,
more powers, and more money.

Cops do things to help gangsters, then lie and spin the issue publicly
with balderdash. The reporters eat their tripe and regurgitate it onto
a page, and then the public is left further perplexed and bamboozled.

For shame.

Russell Barth

Federally Licensed Medical Marijuana User

Nepean, Ontario
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D