USERS, DEALERS, AS UNFAIRLY PERSECUTED AS JEWS

Re: DARE to be empowered, www.merrittherald.com, Oct. 30

I suspect the cops do not attempt to present their ineffectual, anti-drug
DARE claptrap to kids older than Grade 6 or so because older kids might ask
tough questions like these:

1. Why are you presented the program and not someone who really knows about
drugs, such as a user or physician?

2. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms implies citizens have the right to
pursue their own form of happiness so long as they harm no one else. Why do
you feel the government has the right to punish individuals for what they
choose to ingest into their own bodies and jail those who supply them?

3. If drugs are banned because they are harmful to users, why, then, are
tobacco and alcohol not banned? Doesn't this seem unfair to those who
prefer illegal drugs?

4. Is it not true that, far from protecting users from harm, banning a drug
harms them much more than would otherwise be the case because it cuts them
off from access to drugs of known potency and purity? Weren't thousands of
Americans poisoned or blinded by adulterated alcohol during prohibition?

5. If prohibition is so great, why did America give up on the prohibition
of alcohol?

6. Is it not true if drugs and prostitution were legalized, the power of
the Hells Angels would be severely curtailed? After all, prohibition
created Al Capone, not the other way around.

Alan Randell

Victoria, B.C.