SENATORS AND ANTI-PROHIBITIONISTS TAKE MINISTER TO TASK

Re: Senate delay on drug bill risks lives: Justice minister, July 23:

The justice minister is attempting to sell Canadians an already-failed solution. How can society address the problems caused by prohibition with further prohibition?

Where is the evidence that mandatory minimum sentences have any effect on either the supply or the demand for drugs? Our southern neighbour has had mandatory minimums for more than a decade and what has that done to stop drug abuse there? Nothing. It sure swells prison populations and costs U.S. taxpayers billions, though.

Adding mandatory minimums to cannabis production will only drive the prices up, push drug dealers into selling harder, easier-to-conceal drugs and push out the small producers, leaving more organized crime, not less.

At a time when health care is so underfunded and there is such a high fiscal deficit, is there really money to start building new prisons for cannabis botanists?

C-15 is a bad bill that will further entrench organized crime in drug production. If the federal government really wanted to eliminate marijuana-growing operations, it would legalize and regulate cannabis. Someone growing pot in a residence wouldn't be able to compete with people who could legally produce it in fields or greenhouses.

Colin Walker

New Westminster

July 27/09
Vancouver Sun
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