EDITORIAL : DRUGS

Drugs. Those vile substances that can alter your consciousness, turn you
into a junky and a failure, and, in short, ruin your life. Maybe you think
I've seen one too many after-school specials, but God bless the American
television networks' war on drugs and alcohol.

It really seems that more and more families are being pulled apart by drug
abuse nowadays.

All you have to do is turn on an episode of COPS to see drug-addled mothers
and fathers destroying their children's lives; and if that isn't enough to
convince you that drugs are a moral plague on our society, then just go for
a walk through any park in Toronto, after dark. You'll find packs of
homeless crack-fiends and injection-drug users ambling through the dewy
grass, in search of their next fix. How are these people to become
productive members of society?

What will we do if they decide to have children? I, for one, will not stand
idly by and watch so many of my fellow human beings throw their lives away
for a few cheap thrills with a needle or some inhalant.

As concerned citizens, we have all got a responsibility to join the fight
against illicit drugs.

You never know when drugs will turn an innocent user bad; you never know
when a junkie will attack.

The only option here is a pre-emptive strike: Not only should all of these
miserable substances be banned, and the dealers of them imprisoned, but
harsh jail-terms should be applied to anyone caught using them. Jail-terms
will serve not only as a deterrent to drug-use (especially in the case of
Ecstasy, GHB and Ketamine, those pesky club-drugs that have suddenly become
popular), but they will give chronic users a chance to "get clean" in an
environment where drugs are not available.

It is clear that we should lobby all levels of government to pour more
funding into drug enforcement. Policing and community education will work
hand-in-hand to keep drugs out of the hands of our children, friends and
family-members. A great place to start this course of education is here, at
our own university. The University of Toronto is a pillar of Canadian
society. As such, we can set an example for other universities, high
schools and middle schools to follow.

We already have a zero-tolerance policy on the books with regard to
drug-use on campus.

It becomes clear that we must take this a step farther if we are to be
truly forward-thinking. We must institute mandatory drug-testing of all
students, faculty and staff.

We must demonstrate that we will not tolerate drug-users in this community;
we will show that we have conviction, values and clear moral guidelines for
members of our community.

But we should not stop there!

We should be confident of the moral high-ground we occupy, and we should
cease all research currently being conducted on controlled and illicit
substances. In this very school there are studies being conducted on the
effects of MDMA and ecstasy, cocaine and who knows what else. These trials
and research must be terminated immediately. Given our determination that
no one should be taking these drugs, it is not necessary to conduct
research on them. Faculty, staff and students who admit to having ever used
drugs must be dismissed immediately and drugs charges must be laid where
possible.

There is no room substance-abuse in academia!

Illegal drugs may be a problem in our society today.

But I am confident that with an expansion of its Zero Tolerance policy, the
University of Toronto could become a leader in the anti-drugs revolution
and a model for a drug-free tomorrow.