Pubdate: Wed, 07 Dec 2005
Source: Chatham This Week (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005 Chatham This Week
Contact: http://www.chathamthisweek.com/contact.php
Website: http://www.chathamthisweek.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/719
Author: Russell Barth

TERRIFIED OF HARPER

Dear editor:

Stephen Harper recently said "A Conservative government will not
reintroduce the Liberal plan to decriminalize the possession of
marijuana, and we will never endorse the NDP idea of legalizing it
outright."

Drug dealers across the country are probably popping bottles of
champagne! Harper must love organized crime and gun violence as much
as he hates the idea of generating $3 billion in annual tax revenue.

His archaic ideas about "getting tough" on drug dealers are not only
misguided, but completely absurd. Mandatory minimums have failed in
the US, and they will fail even worse here.

The more we "crack down," the stiffer the competition for those that
we don't catch, which will only drive up the illegal profits and the
gun-violence. The streets of Canada in 2006 will look like the streets
of Chicago in the 1930's: Police out-numbered and out-armed, and the
streets awash with the blood of young people.

And stuck right in the middle of this battlefield will be the
thousands of medical marijuana users like myself and my wife. We are
absolutely terrified of a Tory victory in this election. We are
literally afraid for our lives.

Russell Barth

Ottawa
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake