Pubdate: Wed, 21 Dec 2011
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2011 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Jeffrey Hay
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n722/a11.html?1284

KEEP THE WAR ON DRUGS GOING

Re: We Can't Afford A War On Weed, Larry Campbell, Philip Owen and Sam 
Sullivan, Dec. 19.

The former mayors of Vancouver advocating for decriminalizing the 
gateway drug cannabis is ludicrous. It was largely because of their 
permissiveness and leniency that Vancouver's Downtown Eastside turned 
into the nightmare that it is today. Continuing down this path would 
be asinine.

Seattle, a city comparable in weather and socio-economic climate, does 
not have the same problem with open drug use simply because it is not 
tolerated. New York cleaned up its decaying core in the 1980s by 
cracking down on drug use, not by some hare-brained scheme of 
decriminalization.

The constant reference to "the war on drugs" is also getting tiresome. 
The struggle to keep drugs off the streets is more like a constant 
battle, similar to those society wages with any other illegal, 
undesirable activity. 

Jeffrey Hay

Ladner B.C.
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.