THE DEGRADATION OF HUMAN LIFE

In the grim speculation about the fates of Vancouver's missing daughters,
sisters and mothers, let us reconsider the benefits of current drug
legislation. The inflated prices of the illegal drug trade finance war and
oppression abroad, drive an untaxed, unregulated economy at home and force
sick and desperate sex workers into business with even sicker sex consumers.

We should arm ourselves with preventive resources, treat addiction as a
medical issue and then drop the bottom out of the black market.

Legalizing drugs will not eliminate the world's evils, and as long as there
is prostitution, there will also be bad dates. However, whether in
Colombia, Afghanistan or the Downtown Eastside, our drug policies
contribute criminally to the degradation of human life -- and to the
potential for horror imagined at the gates of one decrepit pig farm.

Shannon Meek

Victoria