Stop legal marijuana before it happens

One of my best friends as an RCMP officer who spent most, if not all, of his career in the drug squad in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa. He told me, “Marijuana is a stepping stone to heroin, and heroin leads to certain death.”

Now we have other drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, causing many deaths on a daily basis in the U.S. and Canada.

In Ottawa I observed a car crash of an older teen who demolished his father’s car after using marijuana. The police did not know what to do with this boy who cried out to a large crowd that gathered: “I want to go home.”

One does not have to be too bright to realize that ‘legal’ marijuana will end up in the hands of people of all ages. This will cause loss of employment, car accidents, injury and death. It will bring misery not only to the user, but also to families, friends and the total community. How can the police control this?

The RCMP and other police forces have tried to stop marijuana trading for many decades at the risk of their own lives. They know how much harm and crime drugs cause in a community. Why are they so silent on this issue.

It is time for Canadians and Canadian police forces to wake up and stop legal marijuana before it happens. All of us will be responsible for the suffering and death caused by this madness.

Thomas Low St. Catharines