DRUG EDUCATION NEEDED

Upon reading letters in The Town Talk concerning the War on Drugs and
legalization I felt it necessary to reply.

Professor Bill Shaw recently delivered a speech on the failed drug war
and the social consequences to a group of Libertarians and
non-libertarians at a meeting of the 5th District Libertarians.

In response to The Town Talk article, Rapides Parish Assistant
District Attorney Loren Lampert wrote, "One need not look beyond the
first shattered life they encounter as the result of illegal drug use
or abuse to rebut Professor Shaw's argument."

Lampert's own words actually support Shaw's and the Libertarian Party
position. Drug prohibition has failed miserably and drugs are readily
available for anyone to purchase. If you don't believe it just ask
some of Lampert's case load.

Carlton Vance's opening statement in his letter was simply an insult
to Libertarians. His letter begins, "The old satanic rationalizations
being pushed by the Libertarian Party ..."

Many Libertarians are Christian and several in the Louisiana
Libertarian Party are ministers.

Neither Lampert nor Vance attended the public meeting to hear the full
discussion of Shaw's speech. Vance points to both Juvenile Director
Larry Spotsville and Lampert's law enforcement experience and states
they are in a better position to know the truth about illegal drugs.

Vance is assuming Shaw got his ideas "from a sheltered academic
setting and knows little about the real world." This is inaccurate
since Shaw is a retired police officer.

If Vance and Lampert had attended our meeting they would have known
Shaw was not there as a professor. Instead, he was there as a speaker
for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition -- www.leap.cc

Rather than taking away more of our freedoms as guaranteed under the
U.S. Constitution, we should be educating the public about the
failures of drug prohibition and how we can best address the needs of
the addicted through voluntary treatment programs, not in prison where
illegal drugs are already present.

Vinson Mouser

Bunkie

Vinson Mouser is chairman of the Louisiana Libertarian
Party.