Re: “Pot isn’t good for business,” Letters, The Leader, Sept. 5.
On the contrary, pot is great for business.
All the arguments against legalizing pot are even more appropriate against legalizing tobacco products and alcohol products.
The harms of the latter two far outweigh the alleged harms of pot, even if the scary list of consequences asserted by the Surrey Board of Trade was true (which it is not).
Alcohol and tobacco are not illegal for the simple reason that the harms of criminalizing those substances far outweighs the harms of their regulated use by consenting adults.
The harm of unlimited money going to criminal gangs, the running gun battles in the street, the corruption of law enforcement officers, the easy accessibility enjoyed by teens to unlimited amounts of marijuana… all these far outweigh the self-inflicted harms which consenting adults might suffer from excessive indulgence in marijuana.
Everyone who has actually studied the pros and cons of legalizing marijuana objectively and without a prior belief about it has come to the conclusion that treating marijuana like we currently treat tobacco and alcohol would save tons of money wasted on pursuing and incarcerating non-violent users of pot, while generating tons more money in tax revenue from regulated producers and sellers.
More legitimate businesses would spring up to replace the violent gangs currently in control of the marijuana market.
Some of those businesses would probably join the Surrey Board of Trade.
Ullrich Fischer
Drugs that heal aren’t necessarily recreational
Re: “Sensible BC marijuana campaign comes to Delta,” The Leader, Sept. 10.
North Delta resident Bob Mulholland says the reason he’s so passionate about getting marijuana decriminalized is simple.
He says it saved his life.
There are many life-saving drugs on the market, some highly addictive and some not addictive, such as acetylsalicylic acid, better known as Aspirin.
That does not mean that others should jump on the bandwagon and take these drugs just because they saved someone’s life.
All levels of governments have spent millions of dollars convincing us that tobacco kills.
Tobacco use has gone from a majority of adult users to a minority of adult users.
I am sure we do not want to repeat this same cycle of addiction with marijuana.
My wife and I will not sign this petition.
Neither will my four boys and families of my 13 great-grandchildren.
Fred Perry
Surrey
