Pubdate: Wed, 24 Sep 2003
Source: Sentinel, The (GA Edu)
Copyright: 2003 Kennesaw State University
Contact:  http://www.ksusentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2908
Author: Slater Bakhtavar

WAR ON DRUGS INEFFECTIVE

Dear Editor,

While flipping through channels the other night I came across an 
interesting commercial. One of those god-awful, twisted, government-funded 
late night commercials, mind you, but given the choice between a government 
commercial or I love Lucy reruns, I was forced to choose the former. The 
commercial inadequately presented the case for and reasons why using drugs 
inadvertently links one to terrorists. While the war on terror has evolved 
into one of the most patriotic, dignified events in our prestigious 
history, the war on drugs has been an absolute joke. Not even one of those 
crude jokes, like standing naked upside down in front of your friends after 
a couple bottles of beer, but more like finding yourself in bed with your 
overweight math teacher after a bottle of whiskey.

Hence it would seem that not much has changed since our initial "war on 
drugs" launched in the 1970s. Even though the U.S. government's aggressive 
efforts to crack down on illegal drug use evolved in recent years to 
encompass everything from television programming to foreign policy, the 
overindulging dictators in the Drug Enforcement Agency have incoherently 
suffocated our freedoms by staunchly backing an overtly intrusive policy 
against American citizens. Auspicious intrusions into personal freedoms, by 
an overindulging mass media, has become per se. The mass media uses 
propaganda and fear factors to indulge us with their rhetoric. Never has 
anyone on the Constitutionalist side ever argued that the founders of our 
great nation would have voted for such interference into a personal choice, 
or liberty. Furthermore, it seems that the prestige of the war on terror 
has unfairly been targeted by Czars to encompass propaganda against such 
benefits as medical marijuana use.

Don't get me wrong I'm in no way advocating drug use. Drug use may lead 
some to uncharted waters with no means of return. I'm merely questioning 
the logic of the drug war and the linkage it has with our war against 
terrorism.

As a true conservative, I believe that it's the responsibility of the 
individual to have the freedom to pursue his or her own interests as long 
as it's not hurting anyone else. Citizens should have control over their 
liberty, and the government should allow for personal freedom above order 
in "certain cases" where it is deemed necessary.

As far as the federal government is concerned, I'd much rather not speak 
for it. But I'm positive that our great founders would have certainly 
denounced such utter interference by an overtly powerful federal government 
into private matters of personal interest and such disgraceful propaganda 
of mixing two totally unrelated wars.

Let's just hope our war against terror will be more effective than our 
lamed war on drugs.

Slater Bakhtavar

Senior, Political Science
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom