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Politics : Canadian Political Free-for-All -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: twmoore who wrote (4095)	5/9/2004 11:20:34 AM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Respond to of 37569

Some mainstream life insurance cos are accepting applications and rating pot smokers as standard smokers for underwriting purposes.

To: twmoore who wrote (4095)	5/9/2004 1:41:54 PM
From: Michael Watkins	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 37569

Use is one thing, production and distribution is quite another. There is no rational argument that says organized crime will simply disappear if pot was fully legal in this country. Proponents say " make it like alcohol or tobacco - tax it " etc. RJR and other tobacco producers might be able to produce a lower cost product and distribute through legal channels, but any moron willing to flout the law can produce sufficient quantities in a basement - happening already all over the country - and sell it tax free. Which means that illegal production and distribution on the black market will ensure that all the downsides of crime remain, only with an expanded legal base of consumers. This is progress? Tell you what, I'd be all for fully legalizing every drug imaginable if every single user is fully responsible for paying their own health care costs. Yes, including booze and smokes. Lets enforce personal responsibility through financial levers then. Then we can talk. Anything less is just one more drain on the social infrastructure. While I am all in favour of a workable national health care system I am not in favour of taking moves that simply add more long term strain on to it. Legalized drug production and consumption do just that.

To: twmoore who wrote (4095)	5/9/2004 1:52:46 PM
From: Michael Watkins	Respond to of 37569

Putting people in jail will not stop the proliferation of it's use. To clarify, my desire is to put people in jail who are in the production and distribution biz. The average grow op operator in Vancouver - last time I checked the stats - is caught 7 times, convicted only 4, and serves a max average of 4.5 months. Pretty good time and odds for growing a crop which generates hundreds of thousands of profit annually. Organized crime is into this scene in a big way. This is not a victimless crime. Kill off the supply and costs will rise; that will slow consumption all by itself. Kill off the supply and related crime will drop. Kill off the supply and perhaps we can actually make a dent in organized crime for a change. Canada has never tried to use jail time effectively. If every potential grow-op operator knew that a) they'd be deported if caught (if a non citizen) b) serve 10 years in jail regardless there were be a dramatic reduction in those willing to do this in the first place, increased willingness of the police to interdict (no wasted effort as is now) and a huge hit to the revenue stream of organized crime. Take the profit out, raise the profile (increase the shame factor) - sounds like a good plan to me. Increasing the shame factor is something I'd like to see done with youth offenders too but that's another story.