PERSECUTING 'INNOCENT MINORITY'

Re: "Port Moody going to pot in a big way," The NOW, June 4, about
marijuana busts in upscale homes:

Do you realize what you're doing? This type of reporting about drug busts
is, to my mind, the most important factor in maintaining public support for
drug prohibition, a Hitler-like, cynical and manipulative government
program designed to distract and entertain the majority by persecuting a
totally innocent minority.

Describing drug busts and their aftermath as if such police actions were
normal and acceptable lends support to drug prohibition and, of course,
suppressing the voices of those punished, their families and friends as
well as those of us who oppose these ridiculous laws serves further to
dampen any protest.

Drug prohibition was initiated during the first half of the 20th century as
a means of harassing and "controlling" blacks (marijuana) and Chinese
(opium). In these supposedly more tolerant times, the most enthusiastic
supporters of that racist legislation are the police who are eager to
utilize it to harass and control those whose skin colour and/or lifestyle
offends them and to gain bigger budgets and more power from the politicians
who in turn are always eager to meet those demands because they are
terrified of being characterized as "soft on drugs."

It's time to finish the job we started when we ended alcohol prohibition
and end the prohibition of all drugs - and it's long past time that
newspapers such as yours begin to serve the public rather than our venal
drug cops and gutless politicians.

Alan Randell -

Victoria