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Decriminalizing pot is the best way to smoke out dangerous criminals
By: Joe Keithley, The Province (CN BC), 03-06-05

The death of four RCMP members in Alberta last Thursday during a grow-op bust gone wrong is a horrible tragedy.

Our deepest sympathy goes out to their families from Canadians everywhere.

Anybody dying over marijuana is truly terrible.

But before Canada even had a chance to mourn the fallen officers, the hue and cry for retribution and stiffer sentences reached a deafening volume in the media.

This reaction is not surprising in the aftermath of James Roszko's one-man killing spree.

What is surprising is the lack of thought and foresight that law-and-order crusaders have put into the ever- expanding grow-op issue.

True, the underground world of marijuana production is controlled mostly by unscrupulous gangs that will use any cutthroat tactics to increase their profits.

However, most growers would rather escape out the back window than have it out with the police. James Roszko was an exception to this rule.

But the call for stiffer sentences makes me wonder: Who's been smoking what?

To stem the violence and not seed it, so to speak, we need to employ some logic as a society.

One only needs to look back at the alcohol prohibition of the 1930s. That was when the U.S. government, spurred on by a minority of the public that was outraged at what other people were doing to their own bodies, prohibited the sale of alcohol. This led to many cities being held hostage by extremely violent gangsters.

Al Capone and his cronies realized there was a huge thirst for liquor that could never be quenched by laws.

What we need to do is decriminalize marijuana.

I would be all for legalizing it completely but for the fact that 80 per cent of our trade would be imperilled by the U.S. government. It would take a new president at the very least, or more probably a whole new generation of American politicians, before Canadian marijuana legalization was not a wholesale, diplomatic disaster.

However, if we went for decriminalization of marijuana possession and growth, the pot consumers would soon smoke out a large part of the criminal element.

People could grow for themselves and their friends. And this green cornucopia would naturally weed out a lot of the scum. Then we could eventually legalize it and harvest the real benefits.

Just think of the funny TV "pot" ads from the greedy tobacco and agri-conglomerates that would move to try and dominate the market.

\At the same time, our equally greedy government would take out their due in hefty "sin" taxes and possibly do some good with this newfound green.

While this whole process was growing to its full, intoxicating strength, think of the other benefits. We wouldn't be wrecking people's lives with criminal records. And we would be saving billions on police, judges and prisons.

Now I call that a real cash crop.

U.M.A.N.: Hemp Users Medical Access Network - Toronto Medical Marijuana