DRUGS A VICE, NOT A CRIME

Control language and you control mankind, said George Orwell. In that regard
Robert Sharpe of Students for Sensible Drug Policy at George Washington
University (September 7) provides an example of what happens when the
government controls information.

To control what substance a man may put into his body it is necessary to
control what ideas a man may put in his head. Mr Sharpe has the right idea
that prohibition fails to accomplish its goals. However, drug-taking is a
vice, not a crime. People who engage in vice are sinners, not criminals.
Tobacco and alcohol are far more harmful than the so-called hard drugs,
heroin and cocaine. As Andrew Weil put it in his book Chocolate To Morphine,
"there are no good or bad drugs, only good or bad relationships with drugs".

The government has no duty to protect people from themselves. Restore our
natural right to drugs; it is a right that mankind has owned since time
began. The muddled thinking of university-educated youth could certainly
stand a bit of elucidation, judging by the well-intentioned but misinformed
writings of Mr Sharpe.

Chris Buors Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada