DRUG USERS HELP TERRORISTS BY FUNDING THEM

There has been very little commentary on what the average Canadian can do
in the fight against terrorism.

For most Canadians, the extent of their fight against future terrorist
attacks will be limited to arriving earlier at the airport and making sure
that they pack the knitting needles in a suitcase and not in their carry-on
baggage.

I would like to propose a radical idea that, if adopted, could have
far-reaching implications for how terrorists finance their campaigns of
murder. Stop doing drugs.

Try to kick that coke habit, say no to opium or heroin, reach for a celery
stick at the next party with your friends instead of a joint.

Why? Because you are financing various terrorist organizations by feeding
your habit for pleasure.

Colombia is suffering from a 40-year-old guerrilla insurgency that has
claimed the lives of more than 30,000 people. Each year, civilians are
kidnapped and killed by the three Colombian insurgency movements (the
paramilitaries, the FARC and the ELN), which have all been listed by the
U.S. administration as terrorist organizations.

The guerrilla groups are able to finance their activities by imposing
"taxes" on drug producers and traffickers. Every time someone in Canada
snorts a line of coke, they allow the guerrillas to buy more guns and
weapons with which they will continue to kidnap and murder more than 3,000
people per year.

According to recent newspaper reports, European officials fear the markets
will be flooded with Afghani opium in a bid to lessen the impact of U.S.
retaliatory attacks. The Associated Press reported that the Taliban has
earned tens of millions of dollars by taxing poppy farmers and traffickers
- -- tens of millions of dollars that have not been used for food, shelter or
even basic services for millions of Afghans.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused the Taliban of controlling "the
biggest drug hoard in the world" and according to British figures, it
accounts for 90 per cent of the heroin sold.

Don't hide behind the excuse that your personal drug habit doesn't hurt
anyone. You feed a demand that feeds a supply that props up terrorist
organizations who kill innocent people.

Do your part in the fight against terrorism.

Lesley-Ann Reed de Rodriguez,

Ottawa