A CHANGE IN THE EDUCATION POLICY FOR DRUG USE IS NEEDED

Editor:

The problem with police-inflicted "education" is that it consists of
lies and fear-mongering and is very short on factual information.

As a federally licensed medical marijuana user who is also married to
one, I will come right out and say that this is nothing more than a
government-sponsored hate-crime no less virulent than revisionist
Holocaust denial.

If cops went into schools preaching one religion over another, there
would be a public outcry. But cops go into schools and scare kids
into joining their abstinence cult, and it is funded by taxpayers!

Do these cops tell kids that junk food will kill many times more
Canadians each year than all illegal drugs combined? Do they tell
kids that even in their current, dirty, "street" form, drugs like
coke, heroin, and meth are still safer, less addictive and less
statistically deadly than booze or tobacco?

Do they tell kids that marijuana has dozens of proven medical
applications, including the shrinking of cancerous tumors?

No. They lie. They monger fear. They bully, they cajole, and they
bamboozle. Then they tell kids that they have a "choice" to obey, or
suffer jail. Police drug "education" programs have never been about
safety, they are all about obedience and fealty. Sending military
cops in to teach kids about drugs is like sending in a priest to
teach them about sex: "Just don't, or you will be in trouble."

Also, the fact that taxpayers' dollars are used for this Fear and
Fealty campaign is sick and reprehensible in the extreme. It should
be illegal to go into schools and deliberately frighten and mislead
kids, but no, we use taxpayers' dollars and send cops in to do it! It
isn't just irresponsible, it is obscene! It is beneath contempt!??

Indoctrinations, certificates, slogans, promises and vows - all of it
has proven to be of little help and at least some harm. Don't believe
me? Since a similar program - DARE - first started in the 1980s, drug
use among Canadian teens has quadrupled!

Look at the data: these fear-based "education" programs have
repeatedly proven to be outrageously counterproductive. Maybe because
they exaggerate the so-called "dangers" of marijuana, while ignoring
- - or even decrying - its many proven medical applications. When kids
are lied to about one thing, they are less likely to believe you when
you actually do tell the truth about drugs like meth and heroin.

And who can blame them? We live in a culture that glamourizes sex,
fun, danger, thrills, law-scoffing, risk-taking, rule-breaking,
power, wealth-acquisition and authority-resisting. We advertise
booze, fast cars, fast food, violent movies and video games and drugs
of all kinds right on TV! Then we tell kids that "drugs are bad."
Does anyone still believe that kids don't notice this wild hypocrisy?
No wonder Family Guy is producing songs to counter these lies, and
bless them for it!

There is also a misconception in our society that suggests that only
drug abstinence is to be encouraged and admired. Humans have used
drugs longer than we have been using language, and drug use is
implicated in the creation of all of the world's major religions. We
should not be trying to "prevent" drug use, we should be trying to
maximize the benefits while mitigating the dangers, and bamboozling
kids with fear-mongering, misinformation, and balderdash is not going to help.

Telling kids to "never" use certain drugs is like telling them to
never see a certain genre of movie, never go to an amusement park or
exotic country, or never do anything at all that may be both risky
and fun. It teaches them to be afraid of new things, instead of
curious, and as history has shown, fortune favours the adventurous.
Sensible, moderate, well-informed drug use is no more harmful,
dangerous, or immoral than any one of dozens of other activities
humans participate in every day.

I recommend the Canadian Students For Sensible Drug Policy website at
www.cssdp.org or the Educators For Sensible Drug Policy website at
www.efsdp.org,

Russell Barth