After reading the article (Gazette, Jan. 20) regarding "Pot costs could reach $3.5 million" I felt that I just have to respond. Marijuana (pot) has been around and used in St. Albert for the last 30 years. There have been pot parties and people enjoying a quiet toke in their own homes or with friends, it hasn’t all of a sudden burst onto the scene as some would have you believe.
This need for more money and extra police officers is nothing more than empire building on the part of police forces country-wide. Come July 1st those who have smoked pot in the past or have been growing it for their own personal consumption will continue to do so, that doesn’t change at all.
Yes there will be people who will go and purchase it for the first time to see what all the fuss is about. How many will actual become regular pot smokers once marijuana becomes legal is anyone’s guess. The way it’s being portrayed by some government officials and police chiefs, everyone will be high as kites as of July 1. Therefore we will need all these extra officers on the streets because the cities and towns will be overrun with pot heads, it’s not going to happen folks.
The bigger drug problem we have in our society today is the fentanyl issue. I haven’t read anywhere where our police chiefs are asking for extra funds to stop this crisis. In fact we have provincial governments along with cities/towns tripping over themselves wanting to set up needle/syringe exchange programs and hand out free naloxone kits so we can aid and abet these people to continue their illegal drug use. Also it has been suggested that we should be setting up safe injection sites so if these people do overdose help will be close by.
We have to get our priorities straight, it seems smoking pot will require all these resources to make sure that you are not breaking the law, but if you put a needle in your arm and inject an illegal substance that’s okay, we are here to help you do it again.
Before we start handing over millions of dollars to law enforcement, my suggestion to city council would be for the mayor and perhaps a couple of members of council plus the city manager, take a trip to Amsterdam where marijuana has been legal since 1975. They could sit down with the chief of police and Amsterdam’s elected officials to see how they have handled the selling, distribution and policing of marijuana.
Steve Christian, St. Albert
