What’s the right message?

Re: Sends the wrong message, Aug. 26. It seems clear that letter writer Larry Comeau, a retired RCMP superintendent, maintains that oldschool approach to the issue of marijuana regulation. It is precisely to the inanity of the current laws regarding possession and use of marijuana that Justin Trudeau is drawing attention.

If a continuation of “the war on drugs” is Comeau’s only way of addressing this issue, then he is severely out of touch with the majority, both in society in general, and policing in particular. It has become anecdotally evident that the war on drugs has been a monstrously expensive failure. Any young person today who decides they want to try marijuana will find it readily available in handy-to-pay-for amounts almost anywhere.

When Comeau states that “having enforced Canada’s drug laws for many years, I feel any decision to legalize marijuana should only be done after a thorough debate of the pros and cons,” where has he been these last many years? That ship has sailed. Poll after poll suggest that the majority of citizens here and in the U.S. find the current mandatory drug laws regarding marijuana to be unreasonable. Canadian police chiefs have come to roughly the same conclusion in that they want to only ticket possession and no longer treat it as a crime.

Comeau makes use of the usual scare tactics regarding marijuana. It is incumbent upon him to provide his evidence in the face of so many more scientifically based opinions that suggest otherwise.

CARL KLOPPENBURG, Nepean