REPEAL DRUG PROHIBITION TO GET RID OF GROW-OPS

The Editor:

In the 70s, the Canadian government urged parents to denounce their
drug using kids to the authorities. In the 80s, Nancy Reagan urged
children to denounce their parents. And now a clarion call for
strangers to denounce strangers. The fabric of the open society our
grandparents enjoyed is slowly becoming a closed police state where
drug users must hide from the neighbours. Denouncing each other to the
authorities is wrong. Anyone who lived behind the Iron Curtain could
tell you how important trust is for any community to thrive.

There is a reason our grandparents separated church and state.
Drinkers never felt like they were criminals because they were only
hurting themselves and the same is true of drug users today. Crime
implies harm to other persons or their property. In drug use, there is
no intent to harm others. Vices are not crimes no matter what the law
says.

Drug prohibition is the only reason grow-ops and meth labs are going
to move next door to you. Bathtub gin moved right next door in the
1920s and produced blindings, death and gangsters.

It is adulterated drugs and gangsters that are killing Canadians
today. The only way to get rid of the bathtub gin and the gangsters
was to repeal alcohol prohibition.

Similarly, repealing drug prohibition is the only way to get rid of
the grow-ops, meth labs and adulterated drugs the black market now
serves our children.

There is a reason the drug war has raged on for a hundred years now;
scapegoat persecutions always enjoy strong support.

We need anthropologists and pharmacologists to educate Canadians about
drugs, government demonizations have failed miserably.

Chris Buors, Member Libertarian Party of Canada

Winnipeg, Manitoba