DRUG USE VICE, NOT CRIME

Dear Editor:

Letter writer Peter Marshall makes the case that everybody has a
responsibility to report crime (All must help fight crime, Letters,
The Record, Aug. 27).

That would be a lot easier to do if it were not for the fact that
Canadians have turned a lot of vices into crimes.

Breeding disrespect for the law is the most glaring result of drug
prohibition.

Let me remind Mr. Marshall that Canadians parents were encouraged to
denounce their drug-using children in the 1970s, only to have the
tables turned when children were encourage to denounce their
drug-using parents to the authorities in Nancy Reagan's 'Just say no'
campaign of the '80s.

Today a clarion call for strangers to denounce strangers is the hope
in curbing the drug menace? Anyone who ever lived behind the Iron
Curtain can tell what kind of a community is built when neighbour can
no longer trust neighbour, friend can no longer trust friend and
family members can no longer trust each other.

It's called a police state. Is it really worth throwing away the
liberty our country was founded on in order to prevent a few
individuals from killing themselves with drugs? I would sooner see
drug prohibition repealed than live in a community where no one can
trust anybody. What Canadians need is a clarion call for drug sense
instead of drug prohibition.

Chris Buors, Winnipeg