DRUG USERS TO BLAME FOR DRUG VIOLENCE? YES!

Nothing that I have ever written has elicited more response than my theory,
expressed in a column two weeks ago, that drug users were responsible for
the deaths of the Michigan missionaries who were shot down over Peru.

It seems the quick-on-the-trigger Peruvian Air Force was under the
impression that the plane that the mother and her infant were riding in was
a drug-carrying plane and so shot it down, killing these two innocent people.

My theory is that if there were not so many customers of illegal drugs in
America, the incident would not have occurred. Also, all the death and
violence associated with the drug trade would not occur and certainly all
the money we spend on the drug war could go for more productive things --
like education, perhaps.

But no, we have a nation of aficionados of being stoned who don't care what
the law of the land says. They go about their business of using illegal
drugs, resulting in continuation of the violent drug trade.

Most of the letters I received on the subject were from sanctimonious pot
users who seem to have the notion that what they are doing by using the
drug is just part of the American way. To them, getting high on pot seems
to be one of those many rights we hear about these days that have no basis
in fact and certainly not in law.

Many of these potheads rattled off all kinds of other people I should blame
instead of them, like the CIA and the FBI and other folks who probably, at
one time or another, were involved where they shouldn't have been. That
does not change the fact that with no drug users in this country there
would be no drug trade. All these people who wrote me these letters are
simply trying to shift the blame for the drug trade away from themselves to
everyone else in the world. I'm not buying it.

I would suggest to the potheads of West Michigan that the use of illegal
drugs is harmful. If nothing else, it brings those who deal in these
illicit drugs right into our neighborhoods. Believe me, these are not nice
people. They are scum who are important parts of crime organizations that
indulge in violence as a way of life.

Some people who wrote brought up the notion that there are medicinal uses
for marijuana and I certainly see no reason that the drug should not be
used as medicine if that is what a doctor prescribes.

If the potheads believe so strongly about the "rights" of reefer smokers,
then why not stop their illegal usage and work towards legalizing the drug,
after which they could go back into their stupor, which would be legal.
That way they could get as high as they wanted and no one would care --
unless they killed someone on the highway while under the influence, which
is always a possibility.

Or how about going down to the police station and lighting up there? That
way, they could be arrested and call themselves practitioners of civil
disobedience -- martyrs for the grand and glorious cause of freeing society
from the horrid constraints of the anti-drug laws.

But, no, the potheads would rather skulk around with their drug activity
and occasionally lash out when someone would dare to suggest that they are
part of a major problem in our society. Well -- speaking here to the
potheads -- if you folks would ever come out of your marijuana haze long
enough to take a good look at yourselves, you would see that you are the
enemy, and as far as I'm concerned, a major enemy in the war against drugs.

Again, I would like to state my position on the legalization of drugs
because many of the letter writers seemed to have missed the fact, due I
suspect from the influence of their drug of choice, that I stated that I am
for the legalization of drugs.

I am for allowing any adults to ingest any drug they see fit in order to
obtain the high they feel they need in order to exist. I simply ask that
innocent taxpayers and insurance buyers not be made to foot the bill of
rehabilitation when the thrill is gone. That only seems fair.