BUSH'S NON-SEQUITUR

I have to admit it. I liked George W Bush in the 2000 election. He's a
Texan, had sound economic policies as Governor, and appeared
charismatic. When he won I drank a case of Busch beers to celebrate. After
watching the Superbowl, though, I have come full circle. His equating of
drugs to terrorism made me sick (By his drug policy's logic, he's a
terrorist since he used to love the rock, but that's beside the point).

The point that needs to be made clear is that terrorism and drug use have
very little correlation. Most of the drug users in this country
exclusively smoke marijuana-the majority of which is domestically
grown. As bad as this is (and I believe in Dr. Lester Grinspoon argument
that marijuana's about as bad as Aspirin) there's no link of marijuana to
terrorism. Heroin is basically the only drug that is used to fund
worldwide terrorism. Heroin is one of the major exports of Southern
Lebanon and Afghanistan, to name a couple. Does anybody believe, however,
that a person addicted to heroin is going to give it up to fight the war of
terrorism? If they do, then they are perhaps dumber than George W.

I believe that a much better correlation can be made between terrorism and
our drug war policy. Terrorism wishes to destroy our basic liberties,
change our way of life, and destroy what makes this country a model for the
world. The War on Drugs disregards the Constitution, creates mistrust
between the police and the common citizen, and persecutes minorities more
than five times as much as whites. Bush's drug policy (and not drugs) is
the evil that needs to be wiped out. I think one could back up the claim
that our drug war is worse than terrorism.

Regardless, comparing drug use to the supporting of terrorism makes our
foreign policy since September 11th a sick joke. What is America's real
objective? Capture Osama or get rid of poppy? What the hell are we
fighting in our war against evil?

Maybe we should focus some of the 22 billion dollars a year scheduled to
fight the war on drugs and use them to I don't know... maybe capture Osama,
Al Queda members, and other terrorists. Or maybe the whole nation needs to
wake up and see that our drug policy needs to change. In London they have
started decriminalizing marijuana. In Canada medical marijuana is now
legal. Why is the government wasting our money arresting pot heads, when
they should be spending that money on preventing disasters like Sept. 11th?