PUT HUMAN FACE ON IT

To the Editor:

Re "Drug search ends in students' arrest," Feb. 21: I hope teachers
explain to students why 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, and
besides, the most dangerous drugs of all, 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 crime by users as prohibition makes drug
prices much higher, violent disputes between dealers) than when the
drug is legally available.

Is it that our drug laws are nothing less than a brutal Hitler-like
pogrom designed to distract our attention from more important issues
by ruining the lives of the innocent few who ingest or sell certain
drugs?

BINGO!

The rise of high circulation national newspapers made it possible for
governments to convince even an educated populace that it was in
their interest that their government do evil things to a minority.
Consider the Holocaust. Consider our drug laws.

If people read every day about such sanctioned evils, they become
inured to the suffering, even bored, perhaps, and turn the page. They
come to care nothing for those affected or their families. They begin
to view these evils as routine, normal.

Assuming your newspaper cares about innocent people being carted off
to jail (possibly not, because persecuting an innocent minority does
sell newspapers), consider making your drug-bust stories less
one-sided in favor of the cops by including comments of the
individuals arrested and their families, as well as, wherever
possible, someone who opposes these laws. Please try to put a human
face on the suffering.

Alan Randell
Victoria, B.C.
Canada