Pubdate: Wed, 21 Oct 2009
Source: Huntsville Forester, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 The Huntsville Forester
Contact:  http://www.huntsvilleforester.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2430
Author: Herb Couch

IT'S TIME TO END CANNABIS PROHIBITION

So what if members of the OPP's Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau
Team 3 Central North Drug Unit "were able to locate and eradicate 50
marijuana plots"? What difference will it make?

Last year's police harvest didn't stop this year's crop and this
year's police harvest won't stop next year's crop. The recent outdoor
"marijuana eradication" efforts by the police are glaring examples of
the futility of prohibition.

Law enforcement efforts are not "stemming the tide" or "taking a bite
out of drugs," nor will they ever do so. It is all just an expensive
show at taxpayers' expense to give the public the illusion that
something is being accomplished.

Why aren't journalists asking important questions,
like:

1) Is there evidence that these eradication efforts actually reduce
the availability of marijuana on the street?

2) What percentage of the outdoor crops are police able to
destroy?

3) How much do these annual eradication efforts cost in terms of
diverted police resources, overtime pay, helicopter use and fuel?

Taxpayers have a right to know the answers to these
questions.

This futile and expensive eradication ritual will continue, year after
year, until we finally come to our senses and end cannabis
prohibition.

Every major study on the cannabis
issue has come to the same key conclusion
as the 2002 Senate Special Committee
on Illegal Drugs:
"The continued prohibition of cannabis
jeopardizes the health and wellbeing
of Canadians much more than
does the substance itself" (Cannabis:
Our Position for a Canadian Public Policy,
2002 - www.SenateReport.ca ).

The police need to learn that pot prohibition only supports organized
crime.

Every day that we delay the end of this corrupting, harmful policy,
the deeper the tentacles of organized crime infiltrate into our
communities.

Ending cannabis prohibition is definitely in our best
interest.

Herb Couch

Nelson, B.C. 
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