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Letters: Policing privacy

Cpl. Hilderley's comments on marijuana draws strong opinions

mph, Jan. 18.

Did I really just read a letter from an RCMP officer who works with the Drugs and Organized Crime Awareness Service endorsing prohibition? Sorry if I am not all that surprised, I am sure I am not the only one who may consider this a conflict of interest, but just to be sure I thought I might point out that Scott Hilderley’s paycheck comes as a result of the continuation of prohibition. While he asserts that in the Sooke community educating the youth has led to improvements there, perhaps, I would like to see some factual evidence and data to back his claim.

What Hilderly cautiously skirts around is that the harms of prohibition, far outweigh the harms of cannabis itself - which had he done some research in earnest, he would have found that there are many health benefits. Instead of creating a regulated market, to keep cannabis out of the hands of children, like we do with tobacco and alcohol, he would rather we continue to fund the RCMP in obscene amounts and provide him with continued job security to regulate the black market of gangs.

It’s no secret that prohibition doesn’t work. While you sip back that beer, try to remember the lessons we learned during the prohibition of alcohol and the rise of gang violence in that era. As we take a look around at the current climate of cannabis prohibition, maybe it is time to stop and consider a different approach that cuts into gang profits, and actually does what Hilderley claims he is trying to do. Drug dealers don’t ask for ID, but even in my mid 30s, I am still ID’d to purchase tobacco.

One might think most officers would feel as Hilderly, but interestingly there is a group, called L.E.A.P (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) of forward thinking police officers, judges, lawyers and others in law enforcement who have learned, from their front line positions, that prohibition does more harm than good.

How absurd that in the 21st century we are still trying to police what people do in the privacy of their own homes, to their own bodies, while spending billions of dollars to destroy the lives of otherwise law-biding citizens, and their families. Surely, this sort of human destruction is evil.

Kyla Williams

Victoria