SALVO'S ANTI-DRUG CRUSADE MAKES LITTLE SENSE

IF THE Prime Minister had any doubts about appointing Salvation Army Major
Brian Watters to head his "Tough on Drugs" strategy he must be having a few
more now.

Your report of Major Watters' proposal to drug-test politicians (CT, March
20, p.3) shows just how far he has moved towards simple-minded wowserism and
how far he has departed from the traditional "Salvo" non-judgmentalism of a
decade or two ago when his officers sold the War Cry to, and happily
collected donations from, drinkers in public bars.

Instead of wagging his finger at the "40 per cent of the community
occasionally using drugs", as he puts it (more like 80 per cent if you count
tobacco and alcohol), he should re-examine his own theology where God is
said to have given us free will so that our choice between good and evil
actions can be a real one.

Major Watters' campaign to "save us from ourselves" by trying forlornly as
it turns out to maintain and extend the prohibition on currently illicit
drugs will do little to save the lives of the many who find it impossible to
accept his "just say no" solutions. These abstinence methods, I admit, do
have a place but only one place among many.

His crusade against illicit drugs and various harm-minimisation attempts to
deal with their impact makes little sense, even in his own theological
terms.

Adult voters should be free to make their own (well-informed) decisions and
not have Major Watters, with all his military metaphors, make them for us.

Geoff Page
Narrabundah