Dear Sir:
I read the brief comments from Rudi Peters in the Dec. 19 issue of The Terrace Standard and realized there’s still pockets of ignorance within the community.
An Angus Reid poll published Nov. 2, 2012 in the Vancouver Province shows 75 per cent of British Columbians and 66 per cent of Canadians support legalization, taxation and regulation of marijuana.
To support prohibition is to support crime in our neighbourhoods and terrorism abroad.
The huge benefits of legalization are mind-boggling. Industrial fibre for pulp mills and strand board mills. An annual renewable resource; not every 60-plus years as is the case with wood fibre.
Clothing, food, cosmetics are just a few of the multitude of other uses.
Not to mention the many medical uses approved by Health Canada. Also, many find marijuana is a safer way to relax with rather than using alcohol or tobacco.
Check on the computer as to leading causes of death. Tobacco and alcohol are by far the leading causes followed by prescription drugs. Zero for marijuana.
After 14 years of Prohibition in the United States, millions of jobs were created. Trucking, warehousing, distilleries, bars, liquor stores and so on.
Marijuana legalization would result in income taxes collected, increased spending on home mortgages and municipal infrastructure upgrades.
More money for health care, Pharmacare, education, pensions, fixed incomes, etc. are just a few of the benefits – all without raising taxes.
New revenue would come from a huge new source – B.C.’s marijuana industry. It’s now estimated at $12 billion annually, making it our largest industry.
Other benefits would be a big drop in many types of crime. Not good news for the police. Pot crime is their bread and butter.
This would translate into lower policing, court and prison costs.
Freeing up these resources would help provide institutions for the real criminals.
Guns, gangs and drug houses would disappear from our neigbourhoods.
Think about it. Al Capone would have been only a petty neighbourhood crook if not for Prohibition.
To the Rudi Peters of this world, I would say educate yourselves on facts, not myths.
There’s no excuse for ignorance in this age of technology and information.
One interesting fact as reported in several reputable medical journals show findings that people who use pot regularly are usually of a higher education and IQ. So pot users may be dopeheads but are not dopey people.
Bob Erb,
Thornhill, BC