DRUG WAR BLAMED ON MEDIA

Re "Stolen boats go for pot" (June 30 Victoria News).

Enough of this simple-minded prohibitionist propaganda deploring problems
caused by drug prohibition please. Your readers deserve better. Let's get a
few things straight about drugs.

1. No government has the right to punish anyone for ingesting anything,
however harmful.

2. The consequences of prohibition are far more harmful than allowing the
drug in question to be legally consumed and distributed: More user deaths
because of adulterated drugs, much more crime, explosions and fires in
illegal drug labs, dirty needles scattered about our streets and parks,
electricity thefts, accelerated spread of infectious diseases, skyrocketing
law enforcement costs, police corruption, disrespect for the law, easier
access for children (because drugs are often sold at school by classmates),
more difficult for parents and children to communicate honestly about drugs,
etc., etc.

3. Even if governments did have the right to ban harmful drugs, banning
marijuana, heroin, etc. still makes no sense whatsoever because two of our
more harmful recreational drugs, alcohol and tobacco are not banned and
marijuana is banned even though it is less harmful than either.

So if drugs aren't banned because they're harmful, why do we ban them?

That's easy.

It is to entertain the majority by ruining the lives of the minority. Drug
prohibition began at the beginning of the 20th century as a means of
persecuting blacks (marijuana), Mexicans (marijuana) and Chinese (opium),
but today the cops are happy to make use of this evil law to harass and
control all those whose skin colour and/or lifestyle offends them. The key
here is the cops can choose whom to arrest, whose door to burst through with
guns drawn.

Why do we put up with this brutal and unjustifiable pogrom?

Because the media support it.

Why do the media support this Hitler-like program?

Let us count the ways:

1. It provides many "exciting" news stories about various busts, murders and
assaults as well as adrenaline-pumping accounts of cops battering down doors
- - usually in the poorer areas of our cities and towns.

2. It enables editors to wax poetic as they pledge their undying support for
these fascist-like horrors "to protect the children," taking care to omit
the hell some children are thrust into when their parents are jailed for the
"crime" of using or selling a drug the majority doesn't approve of.

3. It provides many opportunities to publish "moving" accounts of born again
former drug users spouting their just-say-no nonsense to a roomful of
children and imploring the kids, "don't do what I did, do what I say" as
they pocket speaking fees and expenses far in excess of what they could earn
if they hadn't clambered aboard the taxpayer-funded drug war gravy train.

4. It provides many drug scare stories passed along by the cops who are
anxious to keep prohibition going because it provides them with bigger
budgets and more power - not to mention free drugs.

5. Those drug-sniffing pooches are so cute!

6. Misery, suffering and hatred sell more newspapers and produce higher TV
ratings than happiness, contentment and love.

Was there ever a greater gift to the elite of the modern nation state to
help them ride roughshod over the rights of their citizens than the mass
media?

I think not. Abraham Lincoln was mistaken.

You don't have to fool all the people all the time in order to oppress them.
All that's required is for the majority to be fooled all the time, and
sadly, once you have the media behind you, that task is child's play.

It's time for you to begin serving the people instead of our gutless
politicians and venal drug cops - even if you sell fewer subscriptions.

Alan Randell
View Royal