RCMP WINNING WAR OF WORDS

Re: "A war worth fighting", Okanagan Saturday, March 24. In defending the
"war on drugs" RCMP Constable Terry Jacklin is quoted, "More than 70 per
cent of the people who use cocaine started with marijuana."

It is more truthful to observe that the first mood-altering drugs used by
virtually 100 per cent of all drug abusers were tobacco and/or alcohol, and
that these "window" drugs continue to be readily and plentifully available.

A $4 billion (RCMP estimate) segment of B.C.'s agribusiness is producing
unregulated, untaxed, and potentially unsafe products (i.e. often grown and
maintained with toxic pesticides and in unsafe conditions). Plus this
high-margin produce is exported without licence or inspection, and any
profits from its sale are neither reported nor subject to taxes.

Nor is this crop's income, in large part, directed by people who have the
community's interests at heart. To the contrary, it is most often spent by
criminals for criminal purposes.

In fact, proceeds from this crop are most often used to promote, buy and
distribute hard drugs to a class of otherwise law-abiding consumers who
have now by necessity (i.e. marijuana is illegal) become a peripheral but
integral part of the criminal community.

If your article's "Jason" and his buddies want." ..just a way to relax and
have fun at a party or sitting around with friends" and choose to use
marijuana for this purpose, they are now:

* criminals

* consorting with criminals

* providing funds for even worse criminals and

* risking their lives because the dope they buy may be laced with unknown
chemicals.

Alternatively, of course, they could just go to the Liquor store and get
legally drunk, become alcoholics, wife beaters and chain smokers and die in
a drunken car crash. That would be more normal.

Bil Gladstone

Kelowna

With a sensible call for a reasoned debate about ending the war on drugs
buried on your editorial page, it makes it all the more confusing that your
headline in the same issue was another rant from a jaded police officer.

The public tends to listen when police officers make public statements, but
it might be worthwhile to consider where this one is coming from.

Each year, millions of tax dollars are paid to Jacklin and his ilk across
the country to continue their futile "war on drugs."

Surely, we wouldn't expect him to suggest killing this golden goose. Why
take on the truly challenging tasks of combatting theft, sexual assault,
and fraud when you can make a lucrative living by hunting down the "evil" weed.

And let's stop calling it a "war on drugs" when it is nothing of the kind.
It is a war on drug users, i.e. your fellow citizens who have made the
choice to smoke marijuana.

In defence of our beleaguered police forces, it is our procrastinating
politicians who have created this mess. They are both afraid to rock the
boat and, more importantly, afraid to irritate their masters south of th
border.

It was sad to see how everyone in Ottawa was so apologetic when the U.S.
controlled United Nations International Narcotics Control Board chastised
us for being too lenient with pot growers, a charge echoed by Jacklin.

Does he believe that the Americans have it right? They have the highest
percentage of their populationbehind bars of anywhere in the western world
and more than half those people are there for marijuana offences.

That isn't war, it is blind persecution.

As for Jacklin's claim that marijuana is a "window drug," I'm afraid he
need look no further than the very laws he supports for a reason. Since the
so called war began in the mid-80s the police and politicians have forced
marijuana underground, and those who choose to partake are too often
surrounded by every other drug on the black market.

After 20 years of telling people that marijuana was "just as bad as heroin
and cocaine," is it any wonder that many people have come to the conclusion
that they can't trust any of the propaganda they've been told?

If we free marijuana from the grips of the underworld, we will eliminate
the so-called "gateway" situation.

With more than two-thirds of B.C. residents wanting an end to this
foolishness, it is both arrogant and self-serving for Jacklin to presume to
know better.

I, for one, am sick of seeing my tax dollars being swallowed up by this
insanity, and the sooner I see Jacklin and his companions out fighting real
crime, the happier I will be.

Norman Russell

Keremeos