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Pot Legalization Report Draws Fire: Fraser Institute Says Although it Published Report, It is Not in Favour of Legalization.
By admin | July 13, 2004
By Broacast News, Global BC
June 9, 2004
A report published by a right-wing think tank argues legalizing marijuana would add billions to government coffers, and cut out organised crime.
But the Fraser Institute says it is not in favour of legalizing marijuana even though the report it released Wednesday calls for just such a thing.
A headline on a press release accompanying the report quotes the Fraser Institute as saying the government should legalize pot and tax the revenue.
But in a later-statement, the Vancouver-based Institute says the news release was wrong.
It says while the Institute is pleased to publish the report, it does not take positions on such issues and the views of the report’s author, Steve Easton, are his own.
The Fraser Institute report compares the problem to the failure of alcohol prohibition in the US during the 1920s.
In his report, Easton says legalizing pot would shut out organized crime and bring the federal government a tax windfall of $2 billion a year. He says the question isn’t who approves of smoking pot, but who gets the spoils.
Easton says the benefits of legalizing are that organized crime is shut out, and those damaged by marijuana can get treatment instead of going to jail.
“I think there’s no question that marijuana has problems associated with it, but so does alcohol, so does tobacco,” says Easton.
“Like both of these kinds of substances, I think it is far better to deal with it openly. We’ve had some success in reducing the number of people smoking, and that’s been through a process of education.”
“Why not choose the same tack dealing with marijuana?”
The head of BC’s Association of Chiefs of Police quickly came out against the report.
Paul Shrive says he has a problem with the idea of the government “making money off the backs of addicted people.”
He notes that every extreme drug user he has dealt with has started out on marijuana.
Shrive also says the marijuana industry couldn’t be controlled like liquor, because just about anyone can grow good quality pot.
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