METH HYPE

So the scourge of crystal meth is approaching Nova Scotia like a hurricane
on the horizon, is it? Well not everybody thinks so. Some folks say it's
just the same old amphetamine that we've known, in various forms, since
before time was measured.

Western culture has been soaking in speed, seriously, since right after the
Second World War, when governments started selling civilians the supplies
they had earlier stockpiled for official use. Crystal meth is a faster and
more intense way to get high because it is smoked, but it's the same old
substance.

The reason you hear things like the "storm approaching" story is that
certain elements in law enforcement need the public to get behind the drug
war. They need us to continue to bulk up the budget for use on tactical
attacks, surveillance, the prison-industrial complex, etc. The drug war is
big business, and it needs a constant supply of fresh hype to perpetuate
itself.

Humans will always have the urge to get high. Instead of adopting an
American warfare model, we should continue the Canadian peacemaking
tradition and treat addiction as the health problem that it is, not the
criminal law problem that it has become.

Connie Littlefield, Halifax, member,

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition