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Could governments and law enforcement officials be making the drug problem worse?
By Hempology | July 1, 2007
Niagara This Week, ON
29 Jun 2007
REVISIT POT LAW
They called prohibition, the banning of the production, distribution and sale of alcohol early in the last century ‘The Noble Experiment.’ It was supposed to rid society of drunkenness, poverty, crime and various other societal ills.
By any measure, it was a catastrophic failure. People thumbed their nose at the law in ever-growing numbers, and organized crime bosses got fat off the distribution of booze. Governments in Canada and the U.S. were forced to repeal blanket bans.
Flash forward 70-something years and we’re in an eerily similar situation. This time around, it’s marijuana: many Canadians simply ignore the fact that possessing pot is a crime.
That’s led to a situation mimicking prohibition: illegal grow-ops have taken the place of ma and pa stills. Their numbers are growing exponentially, and police say upwards of 90 per cent of the grow-ops are run by organized crime. Thousands of Canadians are burdened with a criminal record each year, just for being caught with a joint or two.
With each passing year, pot on the streets of Canada and the United States is more potent and more easily obtained. The National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found in 2002 that for the first time, a higher percentage of teens found it easier to buy marijuana than cigarettes and alcohol.
Cigarettes are legal in Ontario, but smoking rates continue to drop through a combination of education and tight restrictions on the sale of cancer sticks to minors. Alcohol is legal, but per capita consumption of booze is continually falling in Ontario.
It’s logical to assume pot consumption will follow the same trend through decriminalization and regulation, and it’ll put illegal grow-ops out of business.
With the best of intentions, governments and law enforcement officials may be making the drug problem worse by continuing to pour untold millions of dollars into the war on drugs.
Federal Justice Minister and Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson promises tougher penalties for those who grow and push marijuana and other drugs. But the lessons taught by prohibition tell us that probably won’t work.
Should we legalize pot overnight? Of course not. The dearth of scientific studies into the long-term consequences of regular marijuana use means that would be irresponsible. Controlled, scientific studies must be carried out under the government’s watchful eye.
But the drug problem isn’t going away, and every indication is that it will only get worse without a fundamental shift in current public policy.
The drug problem is not something we can arrest ourselves out of.
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