POLICING PRIVACY

Re: "Don't let evil triumph, Jan. 18

Did I really just read a letter from an RCMP officer who works with
the Drugs and Organized Crime Awareness Service endorsing
prohibition? Sorry if I am not all that surprised, I am sure I am not
the only one who may consider this a conflict of interest, but just
to be sure I thought I might point out that Scott Hilderley's
paycheck comes as a result of the continuation of prohibition. While
he asserts that in the Sooke community educating the youth has led to
improvements there, perhaps, I would like to see some factual
evidence and data to back his claim.

What Hilderly cautiously skirts around is that the harms of
prohibition, far outweigh the harms of cannabis itself - which had he
done some research in earnest, he would have found that there are
many health benefits. Instead of creating a regulated market, to keep
cannabis out of the hands of children, like we do with tobacco and
alcohol, he would rather we continue to fund the RCMP in obscene
amounts and provide him with continued job security to regulate the
black market of gangs.

It's no secret that prohibition doesn't work. While you sip back that
beer, try to remember the lessons we learned during the prohibition
of alcohol and the rise of gang violence in that era. As we take a
look around at the current climate of cannabis prohibition, maybe it
is time to stop and consider a different approach that cuts into gang
profits, and actually does what Hilderley claims he is trying to do.
Drug dealers don't ask for ID, but even in my mid 30s, I am still
ID'd to purchase tobacco.

One might think most officers would feel as Hilderly, but
interestingly there is a group, called L.E.A.P (Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition) of forward thinking police officers, judges,
lawyers and others in law enforcement who have learned, from their
front line positions, that prohibition does more harm than good.

How absurd that in the 21st century we are still trying to police
what people do in the privacy of their own homes, to their own
bodies, while spending billions of dollars to destroy the lives of
otherwise law-biding citizens, and their families. Surely, this sort
of human destruction is evil.

Kyla Williams

Victoria