GOVERNMENT POLICY ON DRUGS FOUND LACKING

Dear Editor,

Re - Drugs are a Jasper problem, Aug. 28

Why do governments prohibit certain drugs?

Is it to protect users from harm?

No, that can't be the reason because users suffer more (adulterated
drugs and jail time) when a drug is banned as compared to when it is
legally available. My wife and I became well acquainted with this
aspect of government policy when we lost our 19-year-old son to street
heroin in 1993. Besides, two of our more dangerous drugs, alcohol and
tobacco, are legal.

Is it to reduce the crime associated with illegal drugs?

No, that can't be the reason because banning a drug always gives rise
to more crime (drug cartels, petty crimes by users as prohibition
makes drug prices much higher, violent disputes between dealers) than
when the drug is legally available.

Is it a bid to distract attention away from more important issues by
conducting a brutal, Hitler-like program to ruin the lives of the
innocent few who ingest or sell certain drugs? An additional "benefit"
is that anti-drug laws allow our politicians and cops the pleasure of
strutting and swaggering before us as they "declare war" on this drug
or that, promising to ride out like St. George and slay the fearsome
and deadly dragon of drugs while sticking the taxpayer with the cost
of bigger budgets and free drugs for our police?

Bingo!

Alan Randell, Victoria, B.C.