TIME TO DECRIMINALISE

Dear Sir,

I'd like to congratulate Bermuda's Drug Interdiction Squad for eradicating
the Island of marijuana for the past month.

Way to go lads... now our choices are limited to heroin and crack cocaine,
which are still available on any street corner. And, of course, alcohol,
the drug that has caused more heartache and violence than any other in
history. This county is insane, removing the safest recreational drug of
all from our streets.

In my opinion, this is purely a political move made by brain-dead
politicians and the Police and Customs as it is the only drug they can
easily detect.

Buying into war mongering America's so called "war on drugs" is crazy. What
war ever solved anything? Most sane countries around the world are
decriminalising cannabis today or at least looking the other way.

They know the truth: marijuana is essentially harmless, non-addictive, and
is consumed by peaceful people. Not one recorded death can be attributed to
smoking cannabis.

Don't believe the misleading commercials on American TV ... that pot is a
"gateway drug". Legal cigarettes and alcohol are the true gateway drugs and
cause more damage to society than all others combined. Cannabis was only
criminalised in Bermuda during the early 1960s before then it was not
perceived as a problem.

Why now? Because of blatant ignorance, racism, dumb politics and pressure
from the United States. Marijuana was made illegal in the States during the
late 1930s as a result of sensationalistic articles by the racist Hearst
newspaper chain. They portrayed "Negroes" and Mexicans as frenzied beasts
who, under the influence of marijuana, would play anti-white
"voodoo-satanic" music (jazz) and heap disrespect and "viciousness" upon
the predominately white readership.

Other such offences resulting from this drug-induced "crime wave" included:
stepping on white men's shadows, looking white people directly in the eye
for three seconds or more, looking at a white woman twice, laughing at a
white person, etc.

It was all helped along by the again racist, Southern Congressman, Herman
Oliphant, and the first director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now
the DEA.), another racist, Harry J. Anslinger, who were trying to score
political points at the cost of Afro Americans' and Mexicans' freedom.

You can read all about the truth in the excellent book, 'The Emperor Wears
No Clothes' by Jack Herer, a newly updated version of which is available
from Amazon.com.

However, what really scares me in Bermuda right now is the number of
harmless pot smokers, who cannot get their drug of choice, and who will try
the truly deadly drug, heroin, and become addicted (it has happened before
during the pot drought in the early 1980s).

Not to mention all the violence that's going on now as a result of alcohol
and crack abuse. That's the real evil folks! Think people, think!... it is
time to decriminalise marijuana now, and stop all the ignorant lies
surrounding the safest recreational drug in the world.

JOHN Q. PUBLIC Sandys Parish