DRUGS: READERS DESERVE MORE THAN PROPAGANDA

Dear Editor,

Enough of this simple-minded prohibitionist propaganda, please [Residents
push grass out of neighbourhood, April 5, Langley Advance News]. Your
readers surely deserve better.

Let's get a few things straight about drugs.

No government has the right to punish anyone for ingesting anything,
however harmful.

The consequences of prohibition are far more harmful than anything
preceding it: more user deaths because of adulterated drugs; much more
crime; explosions and fires in illegal drug labs; electricity thefts;
accelerated spread of infectious diseases; skyrocketing law enforcement
costs; police corruption; disrespect for the law; easier access for
children, because drugs are often sold at school by classmates; more
difficulty for parents and children to communicate honestly about drugs; etc.

Even if governments did have the right to ban harmful drugs, two of our
more harmful recreational drugs, alcohol and tobacco, are not banned, and
marijuana is less harmful than either.

Drug prohibition began at the beginning of the 20th century as a means of
persecuting blacks (marijuana), Mexicans (marijuana), and Chinese (opium),
but today the cops are happy to make use of this evil law to harass and
control all those whose skin colour and/or lifestyle offends them.

We put up with this brutal and unjustifiable pogrom because the media
support it.

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.

It enables editors to wax poetic as they pledge their undying support for
fascist-like horrors "to protect the children," taking care to omit the
hell some children are thrust into when their parents are jailed.

It provides moving accounts of born-again former drug users spouting 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.

It provides drug scare stories from cops who are anxious to keep
prohibition going because it provides them with bigger budgets and more
power, not to mention free drugs.

And those drug-sniffing pooches are so cute!

Misery, suffering and hatred sell more newspapers and produce higher TV
ratings than happiness, contentment, and love.

Was there ever a greater gift to the elite of the modern nation state to
help them ride roughshod over the rights of their citizens than the mass media?

Abraham Lincoln was mistaken. You don't have to fool all the people all the
time in order to oppress them. All that's required is for the majority to
be fooled all the time, and sadly, once you have the media behind you, that
task is child's play.

It's time for you to begin serving the people, instead of our gutless
politicians and venal drug cops.

Alan Randell

Victoria