Newshawk: Herb
Pubdate: Wed, 15 Feb 2012
Source: Goldstream Gazette (Victoria, CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Black Press
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/vvfJCciY
Website: http://www.goldstreamgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1291
Author: J. McRee (Mac) Elrod
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v12/n111/a09.html

PROHIBITION NOT THE ANSWER FOR DRUGS

Re: Legalizing marijuana not the answer for Canada, Guest Comment, Feb. 
8, 2012.

Concerning RCMP Cpl. Scott Hilderly's guest editorial opposing the
legalization of marijuana, the question should not be what harmful
effects cannabis might or might not have, but rather how to best deal
with any problem there may be.

Our young people have easier access to illegal recreational drugs,
than to the legal ones, nicotine and alcohol.

My grandmother said of prohibition, it took drinking out of the
parlour and put it behind the barn. In the parlour, she could control
it. Were recreational drugs decriminalized, they could be quality
controlled, taxed, and regulated. Pushers would no longer have the
profit motive to introduce young people to drugs.

Prohibition did not work for alcohol, and is not working for
recreational drugs.

Society through education and regulation has greatly reduced the harm
caused by nicotine. Portugal has experienced a sharp decline in hard
drug use, since legalization, and treating addiction as a medical
problem rather than a criminal one.

We should not import methods which have failed in the U.S. to cope
with drugs, as does the omnibus crime bill.

It will be a social and economic disaster, creating at great expense a
criminal class of young people who experiment with recreational drugs.

J. McRee (Mac) Elrod

Metchosin
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MAP posted-by: Matt