STOP THE PROHIBITION

Nate Hendley ("Drugs for free?" News, Feb. 25) means well, I know, and
the programs he advocates will save innocent lives, but there is
better a way.

Hendley waxes eloquent about programs that confiscate funds from the
paycheques of hard-working Canadians and hands them over to "drug
counsellors" and other assorted hangers-on who are unable to make ends
meet other than by sucking on the government's drug war teat, but all
this should be considered stop-gap in nature because there is a better
way to solve the drugs problem and save taxpayers' money besides.

We should, we must end drug prohibition and allow users to purchase
cheap, clean, quality-tested drugs at the local pharmacy or corner
grocery store.

I must assume that Hendley is loath to consider this option because he
wants to protect the jobs of his taxpayer-funded friends in the
drug-war business. Or perhaps, he is simply a closet socialist with an
instinctive love of big, intrusive government and a prejudice against
freedom.

Alan Randell