JEFFERSON'S QUOTE SUMS UP DRUG ISSUE

To the editor:

Letter writer Lisa Lebed ("Recovering addict adds voice to debate,"
Letters, April 24) may have been in the trenches but it looks like
she did not learn a heck of a lot about herself.

What is needed is the end of drug prohibition and to restore the
responsibility for drug taking back to the individual.

Temptation is ever present. It is up to parents and not the state to
instill morals. The medicalization of moral behaviour appeals to the
intellectual expectations of our age, which can be defined as a
therapeutic state. Therapeutic states seek medical/therapeutic
solutions to moral/social problems. It is a fool's errand.

"The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he
neglects the care of it? Well what if he neglects the care of his
health or his estate, which more nearly relate to the state? Will the
magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide
against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will
not save men against their wills."-Thomas Jefferson

Chris Buors,
Winnipeg