DRUG LAWS OPPOSED

Editor:

Re: 'Accused trafficker denied bail,' Tribune July 16.

Was there ever a greater gift to the modern nation state to help it ride
roughshod over the rights of its citizens than the mass media? I don't
think so.

If there is one emotion that separates man from lower forms of animals, it
is the propensity for humans to hate, without reservation, other humans.

Once a leader can persuade the population to hate a particular minority and
that he or she is the best person to lead the charge against that minority,
the leader's power is assured.

Adolph Hitler may have been best ever at harnessing the power of the media
to engage the population in a brutal program against a vulnerable and weak
minority, but he wasn't the first nor will he be the last politician to
clamber aboard that particular gravy train to power.

While not (yet) approaching the savagery of Hitler's policies towards the
Jews, governments the world over are willing to co-op the enormous power of
the media to scapegoat an identifiable minority in order to consolidate
power and distract attention from government failures in other areas.

For most governments (if not all), the victims of that repugnant approach
is the innocent minority that uses or sells certain 'illegal' drugs.

The most popular harmful drugs are allowed, but in order to persuade us to
hate the innocent minority that indulges in less popular harmful drugs, the
state bans those drugs 'because they are harmful.'

How did the media win our approval, or at least our acceptance, of such a
manifestly evil crusade?

First, you immerse us in a torrent of 'objective' accounts of the mayhem
without allowing the victims' stories to be told. Gradually we are
persuaded they only have themselves to blame.

Second, you never miss an opportunity to allow those who profit from the
drug laws (cops, drug experts, prosecutors, politicians) to tell their
stories while allowing only the occasional op-ed or letter from those who
oppose the law. This particular item is just another example of propaganda
masquerading as news. You do it all the time.

As to why do the media support a brutal government program like our drug
laws, I can only surmise that tragedy, suffering and war sell more
newspapers and lead to higher TV ratings than happiness, contentment and peace.

When I read stories like this, I begin to wonder if the world would be a
much nicer place today if newspapers and TV news had never been invented.

Alan Randell

Victoria