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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Letter: Canada: Up in Smoke Cafe helps keep crime at bay
Wayne Phillip The Hamilton Spectator:
Thursday 16 Mar 2006 Re: 'Keep marching, pot crusader says; B.C.'s Emery says protests must go on despite arrests at Hamilton cafe' (March 10) and "Enjoy a true 'high' by shunning pot and helping other people" (letter, March 14) It is sad that one of the most innovative businesses in the province is targeted by police and wrong-headedly maligned by detractors. The Up in Smoke Cafe is a registered business that contributes to offsetting residential property taxes in Hamilton. It has contributed to the reduction of problematic dope smoking downtown and added to the dynamic of the core as a vibrant community, controversial but relevant nevertheless. The most significant reason for backing off the Up in Smoke Cafe is that it gives a presence to those who represent an alternative that would otherwise be swept under the carpet and dismissed as irrelevant because, after all, cannabis is prohibited and illegal. It matters little to detractors that prohibition provides a ready-made environment in which organized crime thrives. With organized crime comes gangs, guns, the potential for police corruption and no apparent concern that the prohibition of cannabis is based on conjecture, misinformation and fear- mongering. In short, prohibition is the threat to order and good governance because prohibition is the impetus driving gangs, guns and organized crime, not cannabis or the cafe. The Up in Smoke Cafe stands as a voice for those whom the status quo would serve up as fodder just to give the appearance that enforcement is working. It is not. Cannabis use remains the political hot potato that will not go away.
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