LETTER WRITER EXPRESSES VIEWS ON THE "WAR ON DRUGS"

To the editor:

Re: Police dog visits local schools as part of VIP drug awareness program,
Apr. 17.

I wonder if OPP drug sniffing dog handler, Constable Larry Plummer,
instructs the children about Section 8 of our Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, "Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search
or seizure."?

I wonder if he tells the kids why governments prohibit some harmful drugs
but not others. 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 to distract attention away from more important issues by
conducting a brutal, Hitler-like pogrom to ruin the lives of the INNOCENT
few who ingest or sell certain drugs - with the additional "benefit" of
allowing our politicians and cops the pleasure of strutting and preening
before us as they promise 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 officers?

BINGO! Hitler's armies may have lost the war but, sadly, his ideas seem to
have found ready acceptance all across the "civilized" world.

Alan and Eleanor Randell, Victoria, BC