FELGER UNTRUE

The Editor:

I think it is time for Tim Felger to get some professional help. Tim needs
to talk to someone who is able to help him work through his pathetic
misconceptions about the world's drug problems.

Personally, I cannot consider his words as the least bit credible. I dare
Tim Felger to get clean and sober for six months and then tell us what he
thinks about marijuana. His ranting is misleading, and is a perfect example
of what drug use can do to a person.

I have observed friends and family members fall down and die inside the
drug culture because a stupid person told them that some drug was safe.
Most of them sounded like Felger in the initial stages of their decline
into drug dependency.

I cannot remain silent one more day and let Tim Felger try to convince
anyone that he is right, because he is oh so wrong. I don't care about the
CIA, Iran Contra or his conspiracy theories about crack cocaine. What
concerns me is protecting my children from the neighbourhood liars who keep
spewing out claims that pot is harmless. They are the predators who aim to
convince us and our children that addiction isn't part of the drug use
equation.

Certainly proponents of drug use, like Felger, don't want to reveal the
probabilities of addiction resulting from inappropriate use of a substance
as a coping mechanism. Everybody knows addiction is bad. It starts out as a
lapse in judgement. Someone gets a little too stoned or a little too drunk.
Their impaired state leaves them vulnerable to predatory drug dealers who
don't miss the opportunity to offer up a little crack, or some nasty smack.
Once the hook is set, the addiction takes on a life of its own and before
you can say mary jane, your friends or family members turn into monsters. I
have seen it first hand. But does Felger and his friends want you to
associate their products with such a hated and feared condition? Probably not.

The war on drugs is really a battle against addiction and the terrible
social and economic costs that come with it. And do not even try to argue
that marijuana is not addictive. I have known self-declared pot addicts.
And yes, they did move on to cocaine and heroine and eventually an untimely
death. That's the ugly truth that many of us have known and all of Felger's
rantings cannot change it.

Promoting drug abuse is not the way to build a better society, as Felger
claims. Quite the opposite is true. We don't need to legalize pot or build
more safe injection sites. What we need to focus our limited resources on
are facilities and programs that help people gain freedom from addiction.

The economic and social burdens resulting from drug abuse are well known
all around the world. As a society we need to appreciate that by
collectively taking a stand against drugs we also stand against addiction.

That's real freedom, Timmy.

K.E. Thorne

Abbotsford