DRUG FEARS ARE OVERBLOWN

Dear editor,

When one considers that junk food will kill many times more Canadians
than all illegal drugs combined, it is hard to think of meth as the
epidemic that the government, police, and media have hyped it into.
Fast cars will kill more Canadians than meth, as will tobacco,
prescription drugs, air pollution, and diabetes.

Furthermore, meth is not new, it has been around for about 100 years.
Hitler was receiving daily doses in the last years of his life, as
was JFK. When made by a pharmaceutical company, meth is about as safe
or dangerous as many other prescription drugs.

That said, this home made meth that is on the streets today is
absolute poison and should be avoided. Meth is tricky to make
properly, which is all the more reason to take it out of the hands of
gangsters, and put it into pharmacies. If meth were available to
adults in pharmacies, there would be little to no street market for
homemade trash.

Why do kids do drugs? Many kids come to the conclusion that if adults
will lie about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and marijuana, they
must be lying about meth, crack, heroin, ecstasy, booze, weapons,
extreme sports, safe-sex and safe-driving, too.

And who can blame them? We live in a drug culture that advertises
booze, fast cars, fast food, violent movies and video games, and
drugs of all kinds on TV. Then we tell kids "Say no to drugs"! We
give kids Ritalin, instead of just reducing their sugar and Game-Boy
intake, and then tell them marijuana is dangerous. They see right
though this hypocrisy. A ruse by any other name...

In the last century, when alcohol was illegal, it wasn't the drunks,
gangsters, or cops who lobbied the government for alcohol regulation
- - it was mothers, grandmothers, and teachers. They saw that
prohibition of alcohol was far more dangerous to society - and to
individuals - than quality controlled, regulated liquor ever could be.

Russell Barth

Ottawa