Pubdate: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2000 The Province Contact: 200 Granville Street, Ste. #1, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N3 Canada Fax: (604) 605-2323 Website: http://www.vancouverprovince.com/ Authors: Floyd Landrath, and Robert Sharpe Note: Below appear 2 PUB LTEs in response to the same story U.S. NEEDS 'TOUGH LOVE' INTERVENTION FOR DRUG-WAR ADDICTION I am responding to Salim Jiwa's recent "Border Defended" story. Open and trusting societies don't need spy cameras on their mutual frontiers. Today, it is Big Brother's cameras peeking at you. Tomorrow, perhaps it will be armed military troops as we now see along the border with Mexico. America seems intent upon imprisoning itself - building walls at a furious pace to keep millions of its own people in - while engaging in an escalating war to keep "them" and "their" drugs out. Not only hypocritical in the extreme, it is antithetical to free markets and, most important, free people. Healthy relations between people and countries require honest, and yes, sometimes painful feedback. It is time for both Canada and Mexico to call for an "intervention", as it is known. No troops, no guns. Just "tough" loving. And supportive families and friends who encourage a very strung-out Uncle Sam to sit down and confront his destructive drug-war habit. That is, before he does any more harm to himself and those closest and most important to him. Floyd Landrath Portland, Ore. - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -------------------------- Across the U.S., various police scandals are bringing to light the institutional corruption engendered by the drug war. The corruption associated with drugs is often cited as a reason to increase drug-war spending. Yet, it is the laws themselves that give rise to this corruption. "B.C. bud," currently worth its weight in gold in the U.S., would be virtually worthless, if legal. America's disastrous experience with alcohol prohibition confirms that criminalizeing a public health problem creates more problems than it solves. On average, non-violent drug offenders in the U.S. spend more time in federal prisons than violent offenders. Yet, "zero tolerance" has not stopped the flow of drugs. The U.S. is slowly becoming a police state. The "Land of the Free" now has the highest incarceration rate in the world. We need to stop heeding the politicians and lobbyists who use drug-war hysteria to manipulate the public and generate profits. While concern for children is the ruse used to fool the public, it is an addiction to money and power that perpetuates our failed drug policy in America. Robert Sharpe, Washington, D.C. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart