Pubdate: Tue, 19 Jun 2001
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2001 Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author:  Eugene Oscapella
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1062/a08.html?81129

DIRTY LAUNDRY

Re: One Step Closer to a Police State, June 15.

The war on drugs has served as a justification for numerous, often 
excessive, intrusions into the private lives of Canadians -- the latest 
being the federal money-laundering provisions described by Terence 
Corcoran. Nothing more closely resembles the actions of an authoritarian 
society than the intrusions we are forced to endure in this futile and 
destructive war.

First, we engender a lucrative black market by prohibiting drugs. Then, to 
attack the profits flowing from the black market we create, police and 
governments assert the right to diminish the fundamental rights of all 
Canadians. Eventually, those "exceptional" powers of intrusion introduced 
to deal with drugs will evolve into the norm in many areas of state-citizen 
interaction. Sic transit liberty.

Eugene Oscapella
Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy
Ottawa
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MAP posted-by: Beth