WAR IN AFGHANISTAN UNDERMINES WAR ON DRUGS

Re: Harper vows jail time for drug dealers, producers, Oct. 5

It is with some dismay that I take note of Prime Minister Stephen
Harper's proposal for a "war on drugs."

Surely a politician with such a record for sycophantic regard for all
things American could not have failed to notice that such a war has
been tried and failed in the United States. I cannot imagine that
even Harper wishes to double our prison population by incarcerating
vast numbers of our minority people.

However there is also a Made-in-Canada reason for opposition to any such "war."

Our own military is fully occupied with our war on Afghanistan. Since
this war began, Afghan production of drugs has more than trebled. I
am not sure that we would be able to feed and house the number of
Afghans we could expect to be produced as a result of a full-scale
war on drugs.

This aside, it has long been apparent to all rational people that the
solution to any drug problem is treatment, not punishment.

Douglas Bjorkman

Vancouver