Pubdate: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 Source: Herald-Dispatch, The (WV) Copyright: 2002 The Herald-Dispatch Contact: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/hdinfo/letters.html Website: http://www.hdonline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1454 Author: Alan Randell GOVERNMENT IS WAGING DRUG PERSECUTION I am writing in response to your Feb. 9 story, "Drug Offender May Lose His House," reporting the efforts of an Ohio prosecutor to seize a man's house. What is wrong with you? Don't you understand that by publishing uncritical drug bust news stories such as this, you are implying that it's OK for the government to carry on with its brutal Hitler-like drug war pogrom designed to distract our attention from more important issues by ruining the lives of the few who ingest or sell certain drugs? Surely you wouldn't be so nonchalant if the cops simply lined up these people against a wall and shot them, so why do you suspend judgment when innocent people are (merely?) jailed or otherwise punished? Would you have been silent about Hitler's policies if he had imprisoned Jews rather than slaughtering them? First, banning a drug harms users (adulterated drugs and jail time) and nonusers (murder and mayhem on our streets) much more than if the drug were freely and legally available. Second, if that were the reason, why didn't we ban alcohol and tobacco, too? Hitler's armies may have lost the war but his ideas seem to have found acceptance in the news-rooms of the Land of the Free. Alan Randell Victoria, British Columbia - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom