In two recent editorials, the Globe called the war on drugs a dreadful failure and Insite an inspiring success. Legalization is the current theme.
DPNC Vice-President Gwen Landolt sent them this reply:
In its ongoing campaign to decriminalize marijuana, The Globe and Mail relies on the bizarre argument that decriminalization will reduce the drug cartel’s power and wealth (editorial -April 27, 2012).
This ignores the fact that this cannot ease the level of crime and violence, because it will not stop the profit motivation of drug traffickers. Without legal prohibitions, the traffickers will only increase their trafficking of the drug to many more users since there would be no legal restrictions against its use. The huge profits resulting from such sales will encourage even more money laundering, and criminals inextricably linked with other international organized crime. This is already happening with gangsters from British Columbia increasingly doing business with drug cartels in Mexico: this association will only increase if marijuana is decriminalized.
The resources of law enforcement, can in no way, stop this illegal activity unless demand is curbed by prohibition.
Antonio Mario Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), stated, in his 2007 report, that legal controls on drug use have been highly successful. Over the last decade, world output of cocaine and amphetamines has been stabilized, with reduction in marijuana use and opium production. Without legal prohibitions against these drugs, there would have been even more drug chaos.
C. Gwendolyn Landolt
National V.P.
