The Olympian
P. O. Box 1219
Olympia, WA. 98507

6 July 2002

Kind Madam/Sir:

Hurray ! We.ve broken the back of the Canadian drug trade, and final victory in the Drug War is just around the corner ?

In an operation that began in January 2000 we have squandered manpower (over 300 U.S. & Canadian officers from the FBI, DEA, Customs, Border Patrol & Mounties who could have been chasing terrorists) in order to nab a few measly tons of marijuana and a couple of millions in cash in Quebec and British Columbia.

47 people were arrested. Basically we just created 47 new job opportunities for the hundreds of people waiting to fill their shoes.

Does anyone really believe that this wasteful 2 year sting is going to have the least impact on the availability or street price of marijuana in the U.S.?

In Western Europe (England, Portugal, Spain, Holland, Italy) the opposite trend prevails : turning a blind eye on enforcing penalties for simple cannabis possession. Enforcement resources are thus freed up to go after dangerous hard drugs, and cannabis use has not gone through the roof.

If we taxed and regulated marijuana for adults as we do alcohol we could free up personnel to pursue terrorists and hard drugs, and we could use the tax revenues to provide treatment where appropriate, plus honest drug education.

How many million more adults do we have to arrest and jail before we can declare victory and abandon this futile war against marijuana?