IGNORE THE LIES

Editor:

Re: School Deals With Increasing Neighbourhood Drug Issues

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
menace that the media, government and police have hyped them into.

I applaud anyone's effort to keep kids off of drugs, but many of
these so-called "drug education programs" have proven -- in many
areas -- to cause more harm than good.

As a Federal Medical Marijuana License holder who is also married to
one, I resent the non-factual information on marijuana and the "all
use is abuse" attitude that they usually adopt.

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, they will realize they
have been systematically lied to by people they once trusted. They
will likely conclude that if adults lied 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, 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.

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, Ont.