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Charles Ghorayeb

Time to decriminalize

Par Charles Ghorayeb le 12 mars 2012

The ever vigilant forces of law and order (mostly the Surete du Quebec) seized 1.7 billion dollars in illegal drugs in 2011. Some of these drugs were seized from shipping containers “randomly” selected by Customs for inspection at the Port of Montreal or at one of the rail yards, others in police raids against organized crime operations and a few on the street.  At first glance, this doesn’t seem like a bad year’s work.  Upon further scrutiny however, the numbers are far from convincing.  Coming in a proud and perennial First Place Winner by a comfortable 10 to one margin, weighing in at a staggering $1.3 BILLION (76%), was marijuana; hashish was a comfortable second at $122 million.  All other drugs combined added up therefore to less than $400 million.