cannabisnews.com: Legalizing Pot Will Only Increase Problems 





Legalizing Pot Will Only Increase Problems 
Posted by CN Staff on April 26, 2003 at 18:14:01 PT
Letter To The Editor -- Rob Wilton
Source: Abbotsford News 
People who think legalizing marijuana is a solution to anything can't see past their habit. Marijuana is grown for one reason, profit. Legalizing it in Canada will change nothing. An estimated $2.6 billion worth of pot reaches the United States every year from Surrey alone. Regulation will have no effect on growers dealing illegally around the world for huge profits and illegal trade. As long as there is a market outside Canada, there will be criminals evading police to supply it and fill their pockets with tax-free millions. 
Legalizing it would be a law enforcement nightmare. Look at the legal tobacco trade. Cheap cigarettes from Eastern Canada and the U.S. are being smuggled into Western Canada, fueled by profit.That is thousands of dollars for cigarettes compared to billions for marijuana south of the border. Legalization will only compound problems already facing police and communities. Why add to the social and criminal problems associated with alcohol for a noisy few? Some short-sighted people believe they have a right to consume whatever they want because it is their bodies.Well, they have the same rights as I to not to wear a seat-belt while driving, or a helmet while riding a motorcycle.Smoking pot is not an activity isolated to the user.  The U.S. Department of Health reports that in 1998, 77,000 people were admitted to emergency rooms with marijuana-related problems. Pot diminishes co-ordination and contains 400 known chemicals, including four times the cancer-causing tar than cigarettes. Continued use is damaging to other systems such as the lungs, brain and immune systems. In an age when governments are winning multiple billions in compensation settlements from tobacco companies, why is this even a discussion?It's such a bad idea on so many levels its nonsensical even to consider it. This drug is not harmless. Marijuana is used to obtain guns, cocaine and cash to finance methamphetamine labs.Police are currently investigating 60 homicides related to marijuana, according to the solicitor general of B.C. and the RCMP. B.C. is known world-wide for this drug and the profits are too high for organized crime to ignore.And the cost to society is too high for us to ignore. Marijuana is big business, gang-controlled and always will be, as long as it's illegal somewhere. Letter to the Editor by Rob Wilton -- SurreySource: Abbotsford News (CN BC)Author: Rob WiltonPublished: Saturday, April 26, 2003 Copyright: 2003 Hacker Press Ltd.Contact: editor abbynews.comWebsite: http://www.abbynews.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmLiberals Plan Pot Law Reformshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16004.shtmlCanadian Government Looks at Ticketing Pot Usershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15762.shtmlCommittee Calls for Decriminalization of Cannabishttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14957.shtml
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on April 27, 2003 at 10:36:25 PT
delariand 
I understand. I didn't mean to cause problems just because of a word. Words can mean so many different things. Some words comfort and some words stir anger. I think the english language has too many words. That's the problem. I'm sorry if I upset anyone because it wasn't my intention at all.
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Comment #13 posted by ErikGhint on April 27, 2003 at 07:58:46 PT
this is my my favourite!
"This drug is not harmless. Marijuana is used to obtain guns, cocaine and cash to finance methamphetamine labs."
hahaha
It's defiantly Walters in disguise. No one else is dumb enough to actually think we would believe this crap.
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Comment #12 posted by mayan on April 27, 2003 at 04:52:52 PT
Huh?
"Look at the legal tobacco trade. Cheap cigarettes from Eastern Canada and the U.S. are being smuggled into Western Canada, fueled by profit. That is thousands of dollars for cigarettes compared to billions for marijuana south of the border."Did Mr. Wilton not just make an argument for legalizing cannabis? Or does he favor making tobacco illegal?
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Comment #11 posted by Kegan on April 27, 2003 at 03:32:23 PT
Stupid
Luckily, only a small percentage of the Canadian public are actually stupid enough to believe this moron's rant so....Not worried. There are more of us than there are of them. Aparteid is over.I know one isn't supposed to solicit here, but you all need to know thisMommy’s Funny MedicineWith Canada hopefully about to change the laws regarding the possession of Marijuana, there has been some talk in the media recently about “sending the wrong message to children” about drugs. 
Surprisingly, many seem to think that we need to think of something to tell children, but very few seem interested in simply telling kids the truth. So we decided to make a start.
Mommy’s Funny Medicine is a story of a girl named Heather, and her mother, who needs to use Medical Cannabis.
	The book was written and illustrated by Ottawa artists Russell Barth and Christine Lowe, and was published though Crosstown Traffic, an Ottawa counterculture boutique. Copies of the book can be purchased at Crosstown Traffic for $10 a copy. To receive orders by mail, send your address and a money order for $10 + $3.50 shipping/handling per copy to:
Crosstown Traffic
593-C bank Street
Ottawa, ON
K1S 3T4United States orders are $10 US shipping/handling included.Proceeds of $5 per copy will be used to help establish a location for The National Capital Compassion Society, so that the medical Cannabis users of the Ottawa area can have a clean, reliable source of cannabis, and a safe environment in which to acquire their medicine.The authors can be contacted for interviews at 613-761-6504, or kegan23 sympatico.caYours truly,Russell Barth & Christine Lowe
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Comment #10 posted by lombar on April 27, 2003 at 02:09:04 PT
Who does write this drivel?
"Legalization will only compound problems already facing police and communities. Why add to the social and criminal problems associated with alcohol for a noisy few? "Cannabis users are generally not noisy or obnoxious and how will REMOVING the 'problem' from the police compound 'their problems' ??? And how will cannabis 'add to the social and criminal problems associated with alcohol ' anyway? Alcohol is far more destructive and disruptive. A 'noisy few' MILLION who are sick of being labeled and treated like criminals for smoking some herb."Look at the legal tobacco trade. Cheap cigarettes from Eastern Canada and the U.S. are being smuggled into Western Canada, fueled by profit."Yah as opposed to the BILLIONS from taxed sales. Let's not kid ourselves, the only reason the government cares about tobacco smuggling is the loss of taxation due to the illegal sales of ciggarettes. Comparing apples to oranges... again."Some short-sighted people believe they have a right to consume whatever they want because it is their bodies."As opposed to such long-term thinkers as this author, denying such rights on the basis of political belief. The proof is in the US pudding...Those people who fought to keep their slaves thought they were doing Gods work too. That is the pile cannabis prohibition belongs on."Marijuana is big business, gang-controlled and always will be, as long as it's illegal somewhere. "That's the first sensible thing this guy said. Of course his solution seems to be to keep it illegal EVERYWHERE to maintain that high profitability for cops and crooks worldwide. Also ensuring that it would remain gang-controlled. It would become almost worthless overnight should prohibition be ended. How much is a tomato? 
 I suppose it is only possible to get a person with a kindergarten grasp of logic to support continued prohibition. Or maybe they just have a program that spits out nonsense phrases for the media because the few people who still support caging citizens (and years of lost civil liberties and over-intrusive govt programs) cannot hope to keep up with the flood of anti-prohibition articles and movements that have mobilised. 
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Comment #9 posted by Phil_debowl on April 26, 2003 at 23:53:48 PT
I think i'm sick
This article is horrible. I think i'm going to be sick. I wonder if J. Walters write's under an assumed name?
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Comment #8 posted by delariand on April 26, 2003 at 23:34:17 PT
FOM
I use the term pigs to mean exactly what it means, an asshole cop. There certainly are cops that aren't assholes, and those cops aren't pigs. But pigs a plenty be round my neighborhood.
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on April 26, 2003 at 21:54:10 PT
police
I don't have all good memories of all police by any means but my business was broken into and we were robbed and it was devastating. They literally came thru a wall. The police found and arrested those who did that to us. Without going into details they were kind. Sometimes because of our issue we don't see that police can help us when we need them. 
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Comment #6 posted by BGreen on April 26, 2003 at 21:45:33 PT
Police are my enemy
They threaten my safety daily. Good people wouldn't get involved in arresting cannabis users. Anybody that would cage a person for a plant has problems.The police in the Netherlands were cool because I wasn't considered "scum" in their eyes.The police in the police states of amerika are war criminals.The peaceful, sorrowful Rev. Bud Green
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Comment #5 posted by markjc on April 26, 2003 at 21:34:59 PT
police
every policeman ive encountered has been a jerk-off to say the least
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on April 26, 2003 at 20:09:56 PT
delariand 
I don't want to upset you but when you refer to police as what you did do you know there are nice police out there too? You'd really like my sister if you met here. She is retired now. If you went to her house she would tell you to come in and sit down and then she would feed you all the good food she cooks. Having eight children made her very good at cooking. I've needed police in the past to help me and I'm glad they were there. I'm only telling you how I see it because police aren't all bad people. When we generalize we don't know who we might be hurting.
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Comment #3 posted by delariand on April 26, 2003 at 19:02:29 PT
Amen SoberStoner
Marijuana is grown for one reason, for stoners to smoke it and get high! The profit comes from the fact that The Man doesn't want stoners to have weed, so criminals grow it and sell it at way marked up prices to the stoners, cause the stoners like it enough to pay. If it was legal, who would buy weed when you can throw a few plants in your yard or a closet and be totally self sufficient? It's a WEED. It takes care to grow sinsemilla, but you can chuck a handful of seeds in some wet dirt and grow happy plants with no more effort than some water and a little fertilizer.The profit is a fee we pay the criminals who go through the trouble of dodging the pigs. Take the pig dodging out of the equation, bam, criminals are out of work.
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Comment #2 posted by SoberStoner on April 26, 2003 at 18:43:01 PT
I couldnt help it. 
I didnt see a place to send letters to the editor, but there was a feeback option, so i went that route.
-begins C&P-I have one question for Mr. Wilton. If cannabis were legalized, would it still be a 2.6 billion dollar crop?To further clarify this point, an ounce of high quality cannabis, a plant that can grow extremely well in almost anycondition and is extremely easy to grow as well, is worth more than an ounce of gold. All because it can turn you into a bat if you smoke it. At least, thats what the US congress was told in 1937.Cannabis prohibition is what makes this plant so valuable. And indeed if you do not agree that legalizing would severely drop the price, why would you not want the tax revenues from 2.6 billion dollars of currently uncollected taxes?Cannabis is the boogeyman of the 20th century. It has been said to make you insane, develop sexual characteristics of the opposite sex, as well as other numerous things, almost all of which are false. The 20th century is over, and people are growing past the boogeyman scare tactics.Stop the lies, because until you admit that cannabis is not the cause of all your boogeyman problems, but the prohibition of it is, the problems you seek to destroy will only get worse.I may not be a canadian citizen or live in canada, but I dearly wish I did, because I thought only Americans could come up with and maintains policies so absurd they make a plant more valuable than gold.-end C&P-SS
Click the link, it wont hurt..and post while you're there:P
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Comment #1 posted by SoberStoner on April 26, 2003 at 18:26:27 PT
I stopped reading after this line
 Marijuana is grown for one reason, profit.If it was legal, a lot of people would grow their own supply, and the rest would come from government taxed sales...until you admit that prohibition is the reason an ounce of good cannabis is worth more than an ounce of GOLD, then you are just buying into (or helping propigate) the lies.Honestly, i'm glad that line was at the beginning so i didnt waste any more of my time reading the latest blurb from the propaganda machine.SS
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