Editor, The Record:
Re: Hundreds of illegal grow ops predicted, Sept. 12 edition.
This article suggests that I will be attending the UBCM convention in Vancouver as part of some kind of task force, looking for tools and cash, to allow our municipality to start policing marijuana laws in Mission.
This suggestion needs to be immediately corrected and my position on this issue made abundantly clear.
I do not support the war on drugs. Prohibition does not work.
I do not believe in restarting the PSIT program in Mission or any other program which supports sending District of Mission staff out to try and control the marijuana issue.
Each time the District of Mission steps into this issue it's like jumping down another rabbit hole resulting in an embarrassing amount of your money wasted and no results.
Though I do not use marijuana, I believe it has to be legalized and the profitability taken out of the equation, as has been done in other jurisdictions successfully, one being Portugal.
Marijuana laws fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government and enforced by the RCMP. The control is their responsibility, not the District of Mission's.
Nelson Tilbury
Councillor, District of Mission