Take Marijuna away from the criminals
John Ivison of the National Post tactlessly takes advantage of the killing of 4 Mounties to promote harsher laws for marijuana cultivation in his March 5th column. Here’s my pithy, way-too-late-to-get-published letter to the editor:
John Ivison makes a good point when he says that, “Canadians are not willing to tolerate the rule of law being desecrated by drug dealers.” (What have they been smoking? March 5th 2005) But he too quickly ignores the simplest and most ethical way to quickly create full compliance with the law: legalize and regulate the production of marijuana. The Senate report of 2002 still stands as one of the most well-researched evaluations of the state of prohibition; it clearly makes the case for legalisation–the costs of the drug war are too high, its effects of potentially criminalizing many ordinary citizens, immoral.
By making the activity of growing marijuana criminal, the government ensures that only criminals will grow marijuana. It’s a simple economic fact that by increasing the risk of a commercial activity, you also increase the amount of money required to pay for that activity. What makes marijuana cultivation profitable for criminals is its illegality. Make it a regulated agricultural activity, as with tobacco or barley, and you remove a source of funding for crime.
If we increase the risk of growing marijuana, we will have done nothing to decrease the demand. The cultivation and trade of the plant would only be a higher stakes game, increasing the potential for violence, and threatening the public and police officers’ safety. By attempting to choke the supply we would only drive production deeper underground, more under the purview of organized crime.
March 7th, 2005 at 06:16
Ivison is also jumping on the ‘grow-op’ bandwagon, which has turned out to be totally false. Twenty plants does not make a grow operation.