Pubdate: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB) Copyright: 2009 Winnipeg Free Press Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/send_a_letter Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502 Author: Steve Hartwell PROHIBITION PROFITS If bread were to be criminalized today, it would feed organized crime tomorrow, which more often than not wears a suit and tie or a uniform, in both private and public sectors. Prohibition means something will cost at least 10 times what it would if it were legal. The legal drug trade in Canada is about $20 billion. The illegal drug trade is over $200 billion! Then there's the "Alice In Wonderland" case of tobacco, which is legal, and still costs 10 times what it should -- the most bizarre crime of all. Prohibition only creates a self-serving industry, which includes those who claim to be trying to eradicate it, that will protect its revenues to the death -- of us, the victims of it. Steve Hartwell Toronto - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake