YOUTH COURT JUDGE MISSED THE BOAT

As a former teacher now a lawyer with extensive experience in the youth
court and family area since 1981, I was astonished to read of the reaction
of Winnipeg's youth court Judge Cathy Everett to the 18-year-old's high
school student's 24-page essay on ecstasy and harm reduction.

Perhaps as an English teacher, I may have docked the young man marks for
spelling, punctuation and grammar, but as a social studies teacher, based
on the extracts I saw in the news items, I would have certainly given him
good marks for (a) research of the facts, (b) application of logic, (c)
development of a position, (d) support of the position, (e) a rational
conclusion. And as a lawyer I would applaud him for his courage and honesty
in his attempt to debunk the myths and moral panics perpetuated by the drug
war. I would suggest that if anybody "missed the boat" it was the learned
judge. I have extensively researched ecstasy, through my own children, and
from what I could see in the article every fact the young man gave was
accurate.

The judge should educate herself by doing the following: Read the book the
young man cited, Ecstasy, the complete guide.

Visit the Web site www.canadianharmreduction.com. Visit the Web site of The
Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy and follow the links to all the
articles on ecstasy.

Visit the "Vaults of Erowid" -- www.erowid.org, where she will find a
considerable amount of factual information about ecstasy.

I mention Erowid because an RCMP toxicologist recommended it a couple of
years ago as a factual source to lawyers at a meeting of Canadian Bar
Association in Edmonton on "club drugs."

Nevertheless, the young man should recognize that trafficking ecstasy at
school is wrong.

Would we distribute alcohol?

Of course not. But the judge must realize that Borg-like, she can't just
dictate what the man should think.

BRIAN L. FISH

Edmonton