DO WE WANT A FREE SOCIETY OR A POLICE STATE?

Editor:

Re: Mark Murphy's letter of May 27, which said that to bring drug use
under control, the answer is to empower police to: search any vehicle,
person, place or thing (residence) likely to control drugs; wiretaps and
technical surveillance, "automatic" investigations of new suspects, and
mandatory 20-year sentences for traffickers and 'conspirators'. Whew.

If such actions are taken, we'll have to quadruple the number of
prisons in Canada, at least, throw out the Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms, and taxes would rise through the roof, at $60,000 a year
per inmate.

Break and entry happens because drugs are illegal, not because drugs
turn users into criminals directly, but they become so desperate to
feed their habit.

The only legal drug (aside from prescription drugs) is alcohol, and it
does more damage than all the others combined. Recall what happened
when it was prohibited. Organized crime grew exponentially.

The cost of trying to stop people from getting what they want is
probibitive. The money to be made from letting them obtain it legally,
and pay tax on it is enormous - more than enough to cover the cost of
the fallout of treating the addicts (or burying them).

Here's the choice: do we want a free country or a police state? It's
pretty clear what ex-officer Mark Murphy would prefer.

One last thing: after 20 years, millions of hardened convicts would
hit our streets - convicts that had been teenaged kids sitting around
listening to music and giggling.

Rick MacPhee, Montague