FORGET THE WAR ON DRUGS

Dear editor,

Re Drugs found at high school (Gazette, Nov. 21)

Perhaps the teachers at North Island Secondary School could explain to
their pupils how the government's program of ruining the lives of
those innocent people who use certain drugs differs from the Nazis'
program of harassing (and later, slaughtering) innocent Jews.

As a starting point for the discussion, I suggest the conclusion
reached by Canada's 1973 Le Dain Commission, "There appears to be
little permanent physiological damage from chronic use of pure opiate
narcotics."

How about a school debate on the motion, "This house believes there is
no more justification for punishing drug users and dealers today than
there was in the past for hanging witches, lynching blacks or gassing
Jews"?

Alan Randell,
Victoria