THOSE OPPOSED TO DRUG LAWS ARE NOT PERMITTED TO BE HEARD

Editor, The Record:

Re: Seven arrested in local drug busts yesterday, Apr. 14.

Another day, another piece of propaganda served up by the media to
persuade us to prostrate ourselves before Big Brother government and
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? No,
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 100 years ago to "control" certain
non-white minorities by banning the drugs used by those minorities,
but today, the cops are happy to make use of this racist legislation
to harass those whose lifestyle and/or skin colour offends them.

One thing for sure, drug prohibition has nothing to do with protecting
anyone from anything.

Why do we put up with this brutal 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 giving 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 than happiness,
contentment and love.

Whenever I read manipulative and misleading propaganda like this, I
become more and more convinced that the world would be a much nicer
place today if newspapers had never been invented.

Please begin serving the people instead of our gutless politicians and
venal drug cops -- even if you sell fewer issues.

Alan Randell