WAR ON DRUGS A STRATEGY OF TYRANNY

Re: Abusers keep drug market alive, Aug. 1 letter.

Editor: Letter writer Frank Branca must have thought Rosa Parks was a
criminal who, if only the state had harsher laws, would have been sitting
at the back of the bus where she belonged, by law.

Thomas Jefferson himself articulated the key natural rights principle that
laws aren't legitimate just because a government says they are. Nor are
laws legitimate because they are the result of a democratic process. At
various times, it has been perfectly legal for governments to steal
property, to suppress free speech, to censor newspapers and to murder
people. The worst tyrants could usually point to some legal basis for their
actions. To be legitimate, laws must conform to moral principles. They must
support each individual's equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.

The writer ought to consider that America itself was born of people seeking
to escape religious persecution. Who would have thought that Americans
themselves would one day become the worst totalitarians because they had
forgotten their roots of freedom and liberty for all?

The drug war is simply the latest in mankind's never-ending drama of vast
scapegoat persecutions that serve the purpose of providing a diversion from
the political chicanery of elected officials. Plato said it best when he
reminded us the tyrant is always stirring up some war or another in order
that the people might require leadership.

Chris Buors, Winnipeg, Manitoba