PROHIBITION CREATES DRUG UNDERGROUND

Over the past few days, there have been a number of news events
reported in The London Free Press that are directly related, but must
be seen as separate issues.

Reports on the installation of sharps containers in the Central
Library (Jan. 5-7) and news of a recent police raid, Raid nets guns,
bikes, drugs (Jan. 7), are connected by the fact that both are a
direct result of the United States' war on drugs (WOD) and current
prohibition policies in Canada.

The issues are not drug users and drug trafficking, but the
prohibition of substances, not drugs themselves. Prohibition creates
the development of underground markets and unsafe practices in our
communities; leading to violence, disease transmission and death.

This war's casualties and victims are friends, family, co-workers,
social systems and, we, the taxpayers of industrialized countries. The
use of valuable resources such as police services and other social
services to fight a war to eradicate and stem the flow of drugs in
society has been proven to be ineffective. This policy of prohibition
puts all humans, law enforcement employees included, in a position of
fighting a war in which there are no winners, only casualties.

JIM WATKIN

Member

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

www.leap.cc

London