DRUG LAWS OUTDATED

Editor:

I am writing regarding your Dec. 28 story, headlined Police find pot. Our
drug laws make no sense whatsoever.

If drugs are banned because they are harmful, why don't we ban alcohol and
tobacco? If drugs are banned because they may induce the user to harm
others, why don't we ban alcohol?

No, there is no more reason to punish drug users and dealers today than
there was in the past to hang witches, lynch blacks or gas Jews. Drug
prohibition is nothing less than a state-sanctioned, Hitler-like program
designed to divert our attention from more important issues by ruining the
lives of the innocent few who happen to enjoy certain drugs. The sooner
newspapers, such as yours, begin to recognize this fact, the sooner this
appalling program can be ended.

I suppose in simply reporting what the police are doing to us, without
allowing any discussion on whether the laws they are enforcing are just or
effective, you are merely following a long line of morally challenged
headline writers from the past.

Alan Randell
Victoria