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Traffickers protected

Mr. Harper’s ‘line in the sand’ on marijuana is very disappointing in a leader. Rather like the sand in his head.

The Harper government will protect marijuana trafficking.

Such was the effect of the prime minister’s response to leading public officials in British Columbia who declared support for decriminalization, regulation and even taxation of the marijuana industry.

The Conservative Party government will not only protect marijuana traffickers whose profits derive from the risk of criminal sanctions, it will bolster trade in illegal weapons used to protect or else ‘take out’ marijuana industry competitors.

Continued criminal sanctions are presently being beefed up to  increase the criminal justice industry with its complement of police, courts, lawyers and, of course, jails. This burgeoning industry is funded with our taxes.

Mr. Harper declares that his government will repress marijuana use among young people. That’s not likely.

The histories of such prohibitions are replete with failure, not to mention violence and waste.

Many Canadians, including many young people, are regular users of legally controlled pharmaceuticals prescribed to alter mood and behaviour. These products are taxed and are normally out of the purview of the criminal justice industry.

Meanwhile an illegal industry, the trafficking of marijuana (a mood-altering substance), is thriving with untaxed product movement and its own internal regulation in recurrent gang warfare that now routinely breaks out in our streets.

Mr. Harper’s ‘line in the sand’ on marijuana is very disappointing in a leader. Rather like the sand in his head.

Dave Cursons

 

Cawston