[420 Girl]

Gangs, gangs, gangs. That's all we heard about in the news this past weekend. Gangs . . . and guns.Integrated Gang Task Force says there are an estimated 129 criminal organizations at work in the province. But, apart from being able to count them, the IGTF can't seem to catch them, even though they claim to know who they are.

The weekend's most poignant moment was hearing Eileen Mohan speak about the murder of her son Chris, one of two innocent victims of the tragedy in Surrey last year in which four known gang members were also killed.

Arrests to date: None.

And what is it that fuels the activities of all these gangs? Drugs, drugs, drugs.
And of these, marijuana comprises by far the biggest trade and provides by far the greatest profits. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm forced to the conclusion that to pursue the war on pot through prohibitive legislation is the grandest of all follies.

When any law is regarded with complete and utter contempt by a significant part of the public, then it demeans all laws and erodes respect for the system. Such is the case with the marijuana law. The result is that thousands of otherwise respectable people, including lawyers, professors, bus drivers and yes, even journalists, engage in a recreational habit that risks a criminal record. But it's not them I'm particularly concerned with.

Aside from making an ass of the law, the marijuana business -- one of the most lucrative in B.C. -- enriches all the wrong people, and at no benefit to the community. The scum who kill in cold blood to protect their turf are the beneficiaries of a gratuitous shower of riches even Croesus would envy. Some of their vast income trickles down to the poor saps who risk jail for the chance to earn a couple of grand by turning their townhouses into grow-ops.
But millions, maybe billions, pass through gang hands -- and possibly, we now learn, through our casinos -- beyond the grasp of the tax collector.

By regulating and imposing a levy on the stuff, vast sums would flow into government treasuries. Drug gangs buy guns with their filthy lucre. We could build permanent hospitals, instead of portable emergency rooms in parking lots.

Would legalization make marijuana more widely available? Rather the opposite, if it were subject to proper retail controls, as is liquor. Would it be safer for white-collar professionals indulging at weekends? Certainly. Would we have at our disposal greater resources for research into addictions, both alcohol- and drug-related? Of course. Would legal marijuana put us on a slippery slope to moral decay? I doubt it. But I do know it would put a crippling dent in the obscene profits of the drug lords and their trigger-happy assassins for whom the present law is just dandy, thank you.

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