Pubdate: Wed, 01 May 2002
Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 Vancouver Courier
Contact:  http://www.vancourier.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474
Author: Chris Buors
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n802/a03.html

JEFFERSON'S QUOTE SUMS UP DRUG ISSUE

To the editor:

Letter writer Lisa Lebed ("Recovering addict adds voice to debate," 
Letters, April 24) may have been in the trenches but it looks like 
she did not learn a heck of a lot about herself.

What is needed is the end of drug prohibition and to restore the 
responsibility for drug taking back to the individual.

Temptation is ever present. It is up to parents and not the state to 
instill morals. The medicalization of moral behaviour appeals to the 
intellectual expectations of our age, which can be defined as a 
therapeutic state. Therapeutic states seek medical/therapeutic 
solutions to moral/social problems. It is a fool's errand.

"The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he 
neglects the care of it? Well what if he neglects the care of his 
health or his estate, which more nearly relate to the state? Will the 
magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide 
against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will 
not save men against their wills."-Thomas Jefferson

Chris Buors,
Winnipeg
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