END THE FASCIST-LIKE WAR ON DRUGS

Dear Editor - Re: City man arrested in drug sweep (the Guelph Mercury,
July. 11).

The escalation of the so called "War on Drugs" in North America in the last
30 years, with literally millions of innocent civilians thrown into
increasingly brutal gulags, is a fascist-like atrocity that reminds me of
the early stages of the Holocaust. Here's why.

Why else did Hitler embark upon a programme (pogrom, if you will) to
persecute the Jews and other marginalized groups if it wasn't to distract
the population's attention from government failures in other areas while
giving the people a measure of vicarious pleasure in witnessing the
persecution of various disdained minorities? The nation's media were
co-oped, also, into encouraging negative feelings about those being persecuted.

Similarly, there can be no other rational explanation for punishing people
who use certain supposedly harmful drugs while leaving alone those who use
other harmful drugs except than it is a bid to emulate Hitler's example and
distract the population's attention from government failures in other areas
while giving the people a measure of vicarious pleasure in witnessing the
persecution of a disdained minority.

As was the case with the internment of Canadians of Japanese ancestry
during World War 2, there is no need for government coercion to persuade
our media to encourage feelings of distaste and derision towards those
being persecuted.

That said, I readily admit the Holocaust was much worse than drug
prohibition in that its innocent victims were slaughtered and not just
imprisoned or fined and also because it included children. However, the
Holocaust did not involve gas chambers at first so I am fearful that,
unless we put a stop to drug prohibition, it might soon begin to resemble
the later stages of the Holocaust as well as its beginning.

We must be vigilant, it seems to me, not only to prevent a repeat of the
Holocaust, but to put a stop to any government programme that, even in
small ways, has points of similarity with that repugnant strategy. It is
time to end drug prohibition.

Alan Randell

Victoria, B.C.