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No harm to others
By Hempology | August 26, 2002
A letter to the Globe And Mail
Published August 26, 2002
By Elizabeth Woods (Victoria)
Re Marijuana Drawback (letter, Aug. 24): Regardless of how harmful marijuana (or other recreational drugs) may be to the user, criminal sanctions are appropriate only when harm to another is involved. No one suggests “decriminalizing” murder, for example, because that is a real crime, whereas the ingestion of recreational drugs is not. Government has no business creating crimes where none actually exist.
The foolishness of doing so is proven by the fact that we waste hundreds of millions of tax dollars every year shoring up the profits of organized crime. The net effect of the biggest drug busts is to maintain the price of that drug high enough to generate enormous profits, out of which truly criminal activities (extortion, fraud, car theft, etc.) are financed.
When Justice Minister Martin Cauchon backed down on his timid suggestion that marijuana use be decriminalized, he should have been toasted by Hells Angels from coast to coast for ensuring their profits will continue for years to come.
The easiest, faStest, and cheapest way to deliver a crippling blow to organized crime is to eliminate the profits by legalize the use of all recreational drugs, and regulating and taxing them as we do tobacco and alcohol. We may have no love for tobacco companies, but they are far more under government control than any biker gang, and they pay taxes, and can be sued as well.
It is legal to kill oneself; how can any lesser self-inflicted injury be rationally considered a crime?
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