National Post

Good luck with pot rules

-

Re: Legalizati­on of recreation­al weed unlikely to kill pot black market right away, Published online Dec. 4

In trying to push out organized crime from the marijuana trade, Canada will try to succeed at a task it has failed in other places.

Contraband tobacco is the lesson that Canada, and especially Ontario, refuses to learn. Illegal cigarettes are a major problem, with about one third of all cigarettes purchased in Ontario being illegal. The RCMP has identified 175 criminal gangs involved in the trade, who use the profits to deal in other illicit activities, including guns, drugs and human smuggling.

A haphazard approach to addressing this important problem will not work. In Ontario, where effective anti- contraband measures have yet to be introduced, contraband levels remain catastroph­ically high and have even gotten worse in some parts of the province. Quebec, with mix of tough laws and resources for police, has seen its contraband rates cut in half.

Illegal cigarettes don’t, like criminal marijuana will not, adhere to regulation­s on packaging, labels or age checks.

Tough rules don’t matter if criminals offer an easier, cheaper alternativ­e.

We hope that the government has better luck with marijuana than it’s had with contraband tobacco. And if they do, we hope they’ll take those lessons and apply it to the problem they’ve put off too long.

Gary Grant, Spokespers­on, National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada