IT'S A HELLHOLE, ALL RIGHT -- DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER

The war on drugs is a failure, and it is a scourge on our society.
Snappy little slogans like "Just say No!" really don't get the job
done when kids in junior high school make $500 a week or more selling
"dope" to their friends. Captain Murl Harpham of the Eureka Police
Department was right when he said, "Eureka is becoming a hellhole,"
but there are those who wish to shoot the messenger.

Unfortunately, Eureka is just another small little town that has been
compromised by the drugs, for there are thousands of little towns
across this country that have the same problem, and we as a society
continue to ignore the problem or lay the blame on other conditions.

Recently in the papers a mother blamed "The System" for the death of
her son rather than face reality, but what can you expect? We even
have "no fault insurance."

We go to our doctor with a life-threatening illness and we expect our
doctor and the medical staff to do everything in their power to
combat this illness, and we wouldn't settle for anything less. Yet
day after day we continue to "kid glove" this problem rather than
take the necessary measures to prevent our society from destroying
it's greatest asset, its youth.

In 1949, when Mao Tse-Tung took over control of Red China, he was
faced with a huge problem, for a significant portion of the
population were addicted to opium and this was destroying the country
from within. Mao ordered that all opium dens be closed and anyone
using opium be put to death. Four years and 44 million people later,
Mao didn't have an opium problem in his country or any other
drug-related problem in his country. Today, China still doesn't have
significant drug problem, for those who are caught with drugs are put
to death immediately.

Singapore is a nation on the Malay Peninsula and is probably the
cleanest country, and its capitol Singapore is probably the cleanest
city in Asia if not in the world. This is due in a large part to the
government taking on those problems which plague society with regards
to civic matters and social matters.

About 10 years ago there was an American businessman who was in
Singapore accompanied by his son, who was there for summer vacation.
One evening this 16-year-old decided to go out and spray tag several
of the cars in the area, and he was caught by the authorities.

This would be considered a misdemeanor in our legal system and it was
also considered a misdemeanor in the Singapore legal system, but the
punishment was completely different from our western standards. This
young man was taken to a public place and tied to a post and striped
to his waist. He was then beaten 15 times across his back with a
bamboo cane and then released to his father. Within 24 hours this
young man was back on a plane to Santa Barbara and his mummy, for
summer vacation in Singapore wasn't fun anymore.

If you are caught in Singapore with drugs, you are immediately put in
prison for a term of five years, and in that five years you undergo a
rehabilitation program that will allow you to compete on a skill
level with the rest of society. In short, you are re-educated and
given a skill to compete in the 21st century so when you are released
out into the population again you have a job and a skill.

If you are caught again, you are sentenced to five years of "hard
labor" and then again released out into the population. If you are
caught again with drugs, you are given 48 hours to notify your family
as to where your remains should be sent. After 48 hours, you are
taken out into the prison yard and shot dead.

Since the 1960s with the death of President Kennedy, Martin Luther
King and Robert Kennedy, there has been a total breakdown of
discipline within this country with regards to our society. We have
in some respects adopted the attitude of passive behavior in the face
of harmful behavior.

This happened once before in our society in 1939 and led to a world
war, for we as a society did not want to stand up to a bully (Adolph
Hitler) in Europe.

If we as a nation and a society do not address this issue in a more
forceful way, we will eventually sow the seeds of our own
destruction. If we continue to put people into prison without a
comprehensive program of rehabilitation and without dire consequences
if that rehabilitation is violated, then we as a society have cheated
our youth of a chance to achieve greatness.

Common sense dictates that we do the "right thing," and sometimes
doing the "right thing" can be painful, and shooting the messenger
doesn't help.