ADULTS LYING TO KIDS ABOUT DRUGS

Dear Sir:

Concerning the DARE program in Steinbach, it is the fault of adults,
especially police and government, that kids do drugs. Adults have
failed to keep kids away from drugs, and adults have failed to keep
drugs away from kids. "Don't give in to peer pressure, kids." DARE
will tell you. "Unless it comes from us!"

When one considers that junk food will kill many times more Canadians
than all illegal drugs combined, it is hard to think of drugs as the
"epidemic" that the media, government, and police have hyped it into.

As a federal medical marijuana licence holder also married to one, I
resent the non-factual information on marijuana, and the "all use is
abuse" attitude that are adopted by so-called drug "education"
programs like DARE. In some places, these programs have even resulted
in increased drug use.

Adults, especially police, have lost a lot of credibility when it
comes to drugs, because they lie and exaggerate the so-called
"dangers" of marijuana. They tell kids that marijuana "is 10 times
more potent than before," will cause cancer, schizophrenia,
impotence, permanent stupidity, and an addiction to hard drugs.

When kids discover the truth on their own (which is just a Google
search away), they will realize they have been systematically lied to
by people they once trusted. They will likely conclude 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...

Taking the drug business out of the hands of teens and criminals and
putting it into the hands of responsible adults is socially
conservative. Generating tax revenue from that industry is fiscally
conservative, and using that money to teach kids why they should
avoid drugs is morally conservative. But the RCMP would rather leave
these drugs in the control of gangsters. Whom, exactly, are they
trying to protect?

For those keen on educating kids about drugs--without all the
fear-mongering, hyperbole, and absurd hypocrisy of the standard "drug
education" programs--I recommend the Educators For Sensible Drug
Policy website at www.efsdp.org.

Russell Barth

Ottawa, ON