The coalition of health and justice experts Stop the Violence is right in saying that the war on drugs has been a dismal failure.
In British Columbia especially,
marijuana is so easy to get, the fact it's illegal is laughed at by those who indulge.
Millions of dollars that could have been spent on things like health care or education have been spent fighting the illegal drug trade.
The coalition says the federal government's omnibus crime bill is a step in the wrong direction, and we have to agree - do we really want our prisons filled up with otherwise
law-abiding kids who get busted with minor amounts of dope?
But the coalition is naive if it thinks crime will simply go away if the government regulates and taxes cannabis.
The drug trade is run by highly organized - and violent - gangs. Do you think they'll give up that turf without a fight? It's worth millions, if not billions of dollars a year.
And, if pot were legalized, who do you think has the expertise to run those government-sanctioned grow-ops? The move would simply legitimize the criminal gangs' activities and probably make them even richer.
The tax revenues certainly are tempting, but legalizing weed is not as easy as signing a piece of paper.
- Managing Editor
Jon Manchester