STOP DEMONIZING COCAINE

Re: Cocaine dealer not entitled to sympathy, Dec. 7.

Robert Marshall tells us Kevin Hiebert is not entitled to sympathy
because "Cocaine means fast money that destroys families (Hiebert's
has disintegrated since his capture) and neighbourhoods. It is a major
contributing factor to global social disorder characterized by
kidnappings, beatings, amputations and murders." Marshall mistakes the
consequences of cocaine with the consequences of drug prohibition.
None of those evils go on in Peru where the coca plant is part of the
cultural fabric rather than a demon to be destroyed at all costs. The
proof is in the pudding in that cocaine used to be in a lot of
consumer products such as Coca-Cola without any evidence of the mayhem
Marshall writes about.

The fact of the matter is that drug prohibition, not drug use, has
destroyed millions of lives all over planet Earth in a misguided
attempt to control the natural right of man to self-medicate. The
consequences of cocaine use are akin to the consequences of caffeine
use absent the prohibition law as evidenced in Bolivia and Peru and
everywhere else the plant is native. There are no kidnappings,
beatings, amputation and murders attributed to coffee distribution
since coffee is no longer outlawed as it once was. No one is tempted
to smuggle coffee anymore, either.

Evo Morales, president of Bolivia and former union representative of
the Coca Growers Association, has been trying to bring respectability
back to the coca plant and showed up at the United Nations with one
coca leaf to make his point. The biased reporting of prohibitionists
unable to separate the effect of drugs and the effects of the law are
proving to be the greatest challenge to ending worldwide drug
prohibition as supported by Christian-based countries.

The government has no more right to control the substance people
choose to use than the government has right to control ideas.

Chris Buors

Winnipeg