READER FIRED UP OVER RECREATIONAL-DRUG LAWS

Re: Police Seize Drug Stash, Jan. 19 News

Another day, another piece of propaganda served up by the media to
support one of the most oppressive and brutal programs ever conjured
by the mind of man, drug prohibition. It's propaganda because, as
usual, those of us who oppose these ridiculous laws are not permitted
to be heard.

If drugs are banned because they're harmful, why don't we ban alcohol
and tobacco? Let's face facts here. The government decided to ban some
harmful recreational drugs but not other harmful recreational drugs
for one reason and one reason only: To distract and entertain the
majority by persecuting an innocent minority.

Drug prohibition was initiated a hundred years ago to control certain
non-white minorities by banning the drugs used by those minorities.

One thing for sure, drug prohibition has nothing to do with protecting
anyone from anything. Rather, drug scares serve as functional
scapegoats. They give the general public a focus for blame in which a
chemical bogeyman or the 'deviants' who ingest it, are the root cause
for a wide array of complex social problems.

Alan Randell

Victoria, B.C.