COLUMNIST A PROPAGANDIST, ALLEGE WRITER

What a master propagandist Tom Fletcher is. For instance Mr. Fletcher
rails against harm reduction as a questionable bit of social
engineering" without considering that drug prohibition is not exactly
the natural state of affairs.

Mr. Fletcher alerts us to the Orwellian lesson that to control
language is to control mankind, then proceeds to use strong control
words himself.

For instance, the notions of hard/soft drug problem," junkies" and
superficial perception" is using language Orwell himself would
identify as political. Hard and soft are moral judgments, not chemical
properties.

Moral judgment is based on a feminization scale, not scientific fact.
Junkies is a stigmatizing term, not a descriptive term. And speaking
of superficial perceptions, is that not exactly what the drug problem"
is in the first place.

The drug problem boils down to the fact that some people want to use
drugs that other people don't want them to use. Over time and cultures
the name of the substance changes.

To rid ourselves of the contrived language that the state has
dominated the viewpoint of an anthropologist would be enlightening to
say the least.

Ceremonial and ritual drug use is as old as humanity is itself. Opium
and cannabis are the ceremonial and ritual substances of Asian
cultures, coca is used in native South American cultures for the same
reasons. Alcohol is the ceremonial drink of the Anglo Saxons. It is
wine in the priest's goblet.

What Tom Fletcher needs is a good dose of Jeffersonian wisdom to clear
up any muddled thinking.

Political correctness did not exist when Thomas Jefferson wrote that
it was his observation that in order for the state to control the diet
or medicines of the people, the state must also control the ideas the
people have about those substances.

Jefferson mentions that free people who have their thoughts shaped or
controlled by the state are not free.

In a free country, it is not the duty of the state to help people get
off drugs." It was never the duty of the state to lie or control the
language of the debate, substance abuse" indeed.

I was once offered the opportunity to save my railroading career by
attending treatment after being arrested for a cannabis offense. I
knew that to be forced religious and political conversion, but I did
not know how to make the intellectual arguments. I know how now.
Classic liberalism and the notion of individual responsibility is the
trump card.

Jefferson enlightened me. Truth stands on its own and the state lies
enshrined in the immoral policy of prohibition will look like
laughable lies once the history books are written.

Who are the aggressors is what history will want to know. The
prohibitionist, the legislators, the courts that uphold these lies as
constitutional and the politicians who set the social construct are
the criminals.

Chris Buors

Winnipeg, Manitoba