U.S. DRUG LAWS AN ABOMINATION

Dean Becker guest columnist

Like a baby who feels safe and hidden from the world if his face is
covered, perhaps Sara Follin seeks to gain comfort in hiding from U.S. drug
policies. After reviewing her column ("Drugs impair your education,"
Opinion, Feb. 28), I realized that her initial look at these drug laws
shows strong awareness of their inadequacies.

Her take on the USA Patriot Act considers the violation of centuries-old
civil rights sought with this act. Most striking is her take on the Higher
Education Act, which forbids student loans to be given to anyone caught
smoking a joint but still allows murderers, rapists and child molesters to
tap the government till.

Apparently, this year's onslaught of television public service
announcements that show teenage pot smokers committing manslaughter,
subsidizing terrorists and otherwise subverting the will of our nation have
taken their toll on Follin. Her daddy had it right when he said: "Smoking
weed is like skinny dipping; when you are old enough and in the right
company it is OK to do."

Our nanny state, ruled these days by the multinational corporations that
seek to control every aspect of our "buying experience," loves the current
set of drug laws. Follin wants to believe in our elected officials, do the
right thing and alert the rest of us about the potential need to acquiesce
to the multinationals for our own good.

Follin finishes her column with the phrase: "For those who choose instead
to 'puff, puff, pass' remember, if you get caught now, you could not only
lose your right to enroll in college, but also your civil rights as well."
I would submit that the loss of civil rights comes not from smoking,
injecting or otherwise using "illegal" drugs but rather from the
unconstitutional laws themselves.

Further, I would state that until we end the war on drugs, we will forever
be subject to an increasing escalation of the violence, disease,
corruption, death and destruction that comes not from drug use but from
drug prohibition.

We can choose to hide behind a "blanket" of unconstitutional laws that
benefit the multinationals or we can choose to stand for justice, truth and
reality.

As the president of Houston's chapter of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws, as the community liaison for the Drug Policy
Forum of Texas and as a radio reporter, I consider all drug laws to be
racist, bigoted and a violation of our civil rights.

I believe that the hatred of the drug warriors toward their own children
and the trillions of dollars accrued by the multinationals constitutes, in
effect, an 88-year-old jihad against our own people.

As Reverend of the Church of God's Evident Truth, I consider these drug
laws to be a disgrace, a scandal and an abomination before God.