WILL YOU WILLINGLY CEDE RIGHTS TO GOVERNMENT?

Re War on drugs is blowing up in our faces, expert warns (the News,
February 22):

"We couldn't have done a worse job if we tried," says Eugene
Oscapella.

Unless one considers the possibility it might have all been on
purpose, in which case it is all going exactly as planned.

Cops have powers they don't deserve, military suppliers are getting
rich and the prison industry is growing fast!

Prohibition serves police and government in that it usurps basic
rights.

This makes the individual, and the masses, easier to
control.

Since there are always a few who want to fight back, it also makes
guns and bombs and other implements of war more necessary, which means
more profit.

Also, there is still a contingent of sick people who think - despite
any evidence to support the notion - that fear is the best deterrent
and punishment the best remedy.

They think that all the misery and cost of prohibition is worth it,
because they think that the quest for obedience is somehow noble.

When one considers that junk food (coffee included) will kill many
times more Canadians than all illegal drugs combined, criminalizing
drugs for "public safety" seems far beyond absurd.

"If all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty
together again, then why call for more horses and more men?" Because
it makes money for them," said Oscapella.

"The overall effect of the legislation will be to hand over the trade,
even more than it is now, to organized crime."

This also was by design.

It scares the population into submission and justifies the need for
even more police and jails.

"On this 100th anniversary of prohibition, maybe we have to ask
ourselves, are we addicted to prohibition?" said Oscapella.

I think what we are addicted to is patriarchy - the collective notion
that some father, boss, principal, coach or God is above us, and that
we need to obey them.

If you accept that the government has any authority over what you can
and cannot put into your own body, then you must accept their
ownership: You must accept that the government owns you - like a pet
or cattle - and that you have only the rights that it grants you.

If you accept that, then you deserve to have no rights at
all.

Russell Barth, federal medical marijuana licence holder, Ottawa