HARPER'S REEFER MADNESS

Over the weekend, Conservative leader Stephen Harper said: "A
Conservative government will not reintroduce the Liberal plan to
decriminalize the possession of marijuana, and we will never endorse
the NDP idea of legalizing it outright."

Drug dealers across the country are probably popping bottles of
Champagne. Harper must love organized crime and gun violence as much
as he hates the idea of generating $3-billion in annual tax revenue.
Harper's archaic ideas about "getting tough" on drug dealers are
absurd. Mandatory minimum sentences have failed to end drug use in
the United States, and they will fail here.

The more we "crack down," the higher the profits for those we don't
catch, which will only drive up the competition and the gun violence.
The streets of Canada in 2006 will look like the streets of Chicago
in the 1930s: police out-numbered and out-armed, and the streets
awash with the blood of young people.

And stuck right in the middle of this battlefield will be the
thousands of medical marijuana users like myself and my wife. We are
absolutely terrified of a Tory victory in this election.

Russell Barth,

Federal Medical Marijuana License Holder,

Ottawa