Drug Agents Breed Disrespect

I hope the next story I see about Ecstasy or the next "drug de jour"
will be as truthful and informative as the column Forget the marijuana
scare stories (Aug. 10). It will be if a pharmacologist is consulted
rather than the police or any other "experts" who benefit from the
misguided war on drug choosers.

Pharmacologist Wayne Lautt drives home the point that governments and
their agents have done nothing except breed disrespect for the law for
the last 100 years. It is a sign of totalitarianism creeping into a
"free" country when governments suppress information that does not
bolster their case.

However, I must take umbrage with Wayne Lautt and writer Catherine
Mitchell. The theory of addiction or "getting them hooked" has never
been proven. Addiction is a choice; they are what our
great-grandparents would have called vices and virtues. In John Stuart
Mill's time, "addictions" meant habits rather than some "mysterious
supernatural force of compulsion" believers have indoctrinated us with
over the last 100 years. Addictions are culturally conditioned,
stigmatizing terms. There is no such thing as a "soft drug" or a "hard
drug." The independent World Health Organization reports heroin and
cocaine are less harmful than alcohol or tobacco.

CHRIS BUORS
Winnipeg