DEFEAT IS NO OPTION

In regard to the Feb. 19 Commentary "Rehab for drug addicts a futile
waste of money," you are correct in your views of the four pillars
strategy.

It is well-meaning but misguided. And yes our government seems to
think they can bury any problem in bureaucratic red tape.

Regarding your comment on the Chinese solution (a bullet in the
addicts head and a bill sent to the family for the bullet). I must
assume no daughter or son, no brother or sister, no one you ever held
dear, has found themselves on the corner of drugs and hate with no
hope and no help.

Legalizing drugs is a bad solution. Think how you will feel when the
cocaine and discount heroin store opens in your neighbourhood near a
school.

The real problem is that no one is willing to look at the plain truth.
Addiction is addiction. Naming the kinds of addiction is no different
from listing the different types of cancer.

They are both, life-threatening diseases with many different faces.
The crime here is that the government profits from all addiction in
some way.

Sometimes the profit is money, and sometimes just good press. Liquor
taxes ring up huge dollars, gambling taxes have the bean counters
drooling, and the four pillars just might get someone elected.

The war on drugs is a farce because it's not being fought in the right
places. Napalming the cocaine fields of Columbia without giving
options to the desperate peasants, who tend them, will not stop the
flow of drugs.

The drug squads burn the crops, a year of work for the peasants, and
tell them, "and don't grow drugs" then leave. The drug lord's
enforcers who live next door, come and say "plant drugs or your
children die."

Who do you suppose they listen to? The poor farmers in Columbia,
Afghanistan, and Southeast Asia do not rub their hands in glee at the
misery in our streets.

Most would as soon grow any other crop that would let them feed their
families. The huge illegal drug corporations that control the import
of drugs must be taken down.

Do you ever wonder how so many drugs reach our streets? The technology
to detect most, if not all the drugs, is in place.

Finally, we must increase the aid to our victims of the war on drugs.
Defeat is not an option. If we give up our streets to drugs we will
see Armageddon in our times.

Bill Koss

Campbell River