Pubdate: Wed, 01 May 2002
Source: Paris Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2002 Paris Star
Contact:  http://www.bowesnet.com/parisstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2133
Author: Alan and Eleanor Randell
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n789/a02.html

LETTER WRITER EXPRESSES VIEWS ON THE "WAR ON DRUGS"

To the editor:

Re: Police dog visits local schools as part of VIP drug awareness program, 
Apr. 17.

I wonder if OPP drug sniffing dog handler, Constable Larry Plummer, 
instructs the children about Section 8 of our Charter of Rights and 
Freedoms, "Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search 
or seizure."?

I wonder if he tells the kids why governments prohibit some harmful drugs 
but not others. Is it to protect users from harm? No, that can't be the 
reason because users suffer MORE (adulterated drugs and jail time) when a 
drug is banned as compared to when it is legally available.

My wife and I became well acquainted with this aspect of government policy 
when we lost our 19-year-old son to street heroin in 1993. Besides, two of 
our more dangerous drugs, alcohol and tobacco, are legal.

Is it to reduce the crime associated with illegal drugs? No, that can't be 
the reason because banning a drug always gives rise to MORE crime (drug 
cartels, petty crimes by users as prohibition makes drug prices much 
higher, violent disputes between dealers) than when the drug is legally 
available. Is it to distract attention away from more important issues by 
conducting a brutal, Hitler-like pogrom to ruin the lives of the INNOCENT 
few who ingest or sell certain drugs - with the additional "benefit" of 
allowing our politicians and cops the pleasure of strutting and preening 
before us as they promise to ride out like St. George and slay the fearsome 
and deadly dragon of drugs while sticking the taxpayer with the cost of 
bigger budgets and free drugs for our police officers?

BINGO! Hitler's armies may have lost the war but, sadly, his ideas seem to 
have found ready acceptance all across the "civilized" world.

Alan and Eleanor Randell, Victoria, BC
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MAP posted-by: Ariel