Pubdate: Thu, 08 Aug 2013
Source: Georgia Straight, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 The Georgia Straight
Contact:  http://www.straight.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1084
Author: Ian MacLeod

PROHIBITION HELPS CROOKS, LAWYERS, AND PRISON GUARDS

ON MARIJUANA CRIMINALIZATION, we are still asking the wrong question 
["Activists want citizens to dump prohibition", July 25-August 1]. It 
should not be "is marijuana harmful?", but rather "is prohibition 
causing more harm that it cures?" The answer is certainly "yes".

I am in no way advocating the use of drugs. However, the so-called 
"war on drugs" is a massive fraud on taxpayers, parents, and the addicted.

It causes much more harm than it cures. The war funds organized 
crime, funds terrorists, and uses our taxes to pay thousands of 
police, lawyers, and prison guards. They are financially all on the 
same side as the criminals-ironic, huh!-and this war builds massive 
disrespect for the law among our young people and, for all that, does 
little to curb drug use.

The whole war on drugs is driven by the premise that if you control 
supply, you will beat the problem. But it is not supply-side driven; 
it is demand-side driven. And the war is not even working on 
supply-high school kids tell me that it is easier to get all kinds of 
drugs in school than it is to get beer. As long as the demand exists, 
someone will supply it.

One can only hope that our politicians will let research and reason 
prevail. But I'm not holding my breath, and certainly not with the 
ideologues in the Harper Conservatives.

Ian MacLeod Richmond
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom