A MEDIA-DRIVEN CONSPIRACY?

Editor, The News:

Re: (`RCMP raid suspected grow-ops,' A7, April 10):

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 a hundred 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.

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

Alan Randell, Victoria