DRUG LAWS SHOULD NOT RECEIVE SUPPORT

To the editor: This letter is regarding the editorial, "Paper takes FBI to
task, wins apology," in the March 14 issue. "The marijuana bust by Kentucky
State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week netted over
1,000 plants at a residence on Stonehouse Road - we were there." And we all
know why you were there, the police told you about the raid beforehand.
While I congratulate you for not allowing the FBI to walk all over you, I
do hope you stop acting as their public relations department and writing up
laudatory accounts of cops committing mayhem at the homes of innocent drug
users. There exists today an Axis of Evil that must be broken.

No, I'm not talking about Iran, Iraq and North Korea, I'm talking about our
politicians and our media, who are scheming together to ensure that our
shameful drug laws receive general support amongst the people. Let's begin
at the beginning.

Why do governments prohibit certain drugs? 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, first to ostracize and then to destroy the innocent few
who ingest or sell certain drugs - with the additional "benefit" of
allowing our politicians and cops, along with their media sycophants, the
pleasure of strutting and swagger 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. How did this happen?

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

The answer?

The media, in two ways. First, the media immerse us in such a torrent of
matter-of-fact, "objective" accounts of the mayhem without allowing the
victims' stories to be told so that we become inured to their plight and
are persuaded that "they only have themselves to blame"? Second, the media
never miss an opportunity to allow those who profit from the drug laws
(cops, drug "experts," DAs, politicians, etc. - but especially the cops) to
tell their stories over and over, while allowing only the occasional letter
or op-ed article from those who oppose the law. Why do the media support a
brutal government pogrom like our drug laws? I can only surmise that
tragedy, suffering and war sell more newspapers and attract higher TV
ratings than happiness, contentment and peace. How should we describe the
relationship between politicians who engage in such a loathsome pogrom and
the media that support it? Axis of Evil sounds about right to me.

Alan and Eleanor Randell, Victoria, BC, Canada