Pubdate: Sun, 11 Nov 2012 Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB) Copyright: 2012 The Calgary Sun Contact: http://www.calgarysun.com/letter-to-editor Website: http://www.calgarysun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67 Author: Ian Robinson Page: 71 HIGH TIME FOR CHANGE "I've never had a problem with drugs. I've had a problem with the police." - - Keith Richards The provincial government last week launched a consultation with cops and communities around Alberta to see what they can do to eradicate the production of a certain green, leafy substance popular among =C2=85 well. Pretty much every demographic I know. Couldn't we just heap a big pile of $100 bills in front of the legislature and set it on fire instead? It would have about as much effect and, at the very least, provide a vivid illustration of the futility of the North American war on unconventional entrepreneurial agriculture. Plus, you know - unlike most of what happens at the legislature, it'd be fun to watch. The usual reasons for the war on drugs are always trotted out with these kinds of announcements. You know them by heart. Grow-ops are bad because the operators steal power from the grid and their neighbours. The guy performing the jury-rigged electrical connection - "Hey dude, red goes to red, right?" - got the job because he took a couple shop classes in high school. This increases the danger of fires like the $2 million debacle in Citadel that saw five houses and 11 vehicles destroyed. And oh yeah, let's not forget the spectre of violence, as competing drug gangs try to shut one another down or rip each other off. A terrible scourge that needs to be fought, right? Not so much. Because every negative aspect of the marijuana drug trade is the result of its illegality. If cultivating and selling marijuana were legal, the people who do it wouldn't use firearms to compete. They'd advertise. They wouldn't turn residential homes into toxic waste dumps by hiding their operations inside them. They'd build greenhouses instead. They wouldn't be stealing power from the grid. They'd buy it. They'd hire employees who would pay taxes on their income. The futility of trying to enforce marijuana law in this city is staggering. Cops told the Sun this week there are as many as 5,000 indoor greenhouses in this city. Crimestoppers fields tips from citizens about 500 of them annually. Between April and October of this year, cops got around to serving warrants on =C2=85 just 54 of them. Now I'm no math professor, but does that add up to you? The illegal drug market comprises nearly 10% of global trade. Marijuana cultivation alone is B.C.'s most lucrative agricultural commodity. Isn't it time we brought this crop out of the darkness and into the light =C2=85 and taxed the hell out of it? I'm no radical on this - more than half of Canadians want marijuana legalized. We have spent billions on this futile endeavour. The Americans - whose laws have unfortunately driven much of this nation's own drug policy - have spent an estimated $1 trillion since a guy named Richard Nixon decided to launch the so-called War on Drugs. The drug war hasn't just been bad for the bottom line of governments. It has caused the increased militarization of our police forces. Laws permitting asset seizures from people convicted of drug crimes has introduced the profit motive into the worlds of law enforcement and politics. Law and order eroded Those are both bad things. Anti-drug laws amount to nothing more than price supports for drug cartels. Those laws are what make drugs profitable, so profitable that entire nations have had their foundations of law and order eroded. All this goes away if the war on drugs goes away. And we can all quit calling Crimestoppers on our neighbours when their windows fog up. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt