ANTI-DRUG ADS ARE A SICK ATTEMPT TO TIE POT SMOKERS TO GLOBAL TERRORISM

The "narco-terrorists" have finally hit American shores, only they were
here all along. In fact, they turned out to be America's children. A
teenager smoking marijuana is now a terrorist or traitor to his or her
country, at least according to President Bush's Office of National Drug
Control Policy and the ads that aired during the Superbowl, and were
followed by print ads in newspapers across the country.

It is preposterous to insinuate that teenagers or anyone else who smokes
marijuana is somehow a terrorist or traitor. The idea is based on the
precept that drugs finance terrorist organizations, when in reality it is
the prohibition of drugs that make the market in drugs so lucrative and
therefore attractive to criminals and terrorists. Alcohol, a drug by any
other name, does not fund terrorists because it is not illegal. When it was
illegal, the proceeds funded all sorts of "terrorism" or in the vernacular
of the time period "gangsterism."

So if you were drinking a "Bud" during the game, you were a patriot, but if
you were smoking a "bud," you were suddenly a traitor. And if your kids or
their friends were "helping to murder a family in Colombia," it is because
we have allowed corrupt, ignorant and fanatical people to wage war on
substances, behavior, minorities and the constitution.

We have allowed shysters, crooks and quacks to rob this nation of $300
billion over the last 60 years to "eliminate drugs" and "protect the
children," and all it has done is enrich criminals, terrorists and
dictators in foreign lands while creating crime and violence on our own
streets. We traded schools for prisons and teachers for police; we traded
compassion for punishment and treatment for incarceration; we traded the
truth for lies.

Our children may be a lot of things; they may be lonely, scared or
confused; they may be rebellious, defiant or depressed; they may be
spoiled, arrogant or just out to have a little fun, but they are not
terrorists or traitors. They are not our enemy; they are our children.

What kind of people could lay blame upon the most innocent among us for the
most hideous of crimes, and why do we let them get away with it?

Jim White

Oregon, Ohio