Pubdate: Sun, 07 Dec 2003 Source: Joplin Globe, The (MO) Copyright: 2003 The Joplin Globe Contact: http://www.joplinglobe.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/859 Author: Charlene Keener WHOSE WAR ON DRUGS? In my opinion the war on drugs was really created to pass a series of laws that affect all citizens today. These laws were the beginning of the government's control and the loss of privacy for all of us. The big corporate drug companies wanted to protect their monopoly on the drugs. They, in turn, with their huge profits, buy the president, senators and representatives with their campaign contributions. This is the long and short of it, and they are not concerned about the health and well-being of the general population, only the profit. Pharmacy employees have observed that in many cases the first prescription is followed by a second for the side effects of the first, then a third for the side effects of the second, and on and on. Big corporate drug companies know a cure is not profitable but treating the symptoms and side effects is very profitable. To cover this greed the government created a cover-up, putting young people in jail for life for doing no more than smoking a weed that grows naturally. Once again big corporate business wins as these young lifers are put to work for slave wages in Unicor. Unicor is factories within the prison system that big corporations own and that are directly competing in the marketplace with your company paying your wages and your health-care insurance. The taxpayer is paying the prison costs and Unicor is reaping the benefits. This is a government that puts the greed of so few above the health and well being of so many. The war on drugs was the inch we gave the government. They took a mile and now we have the war on terrorism, the Homeland Security Act and the Patriot Act. Check what rights we as citizens lost this time. It will make you sick, but never fear, they'll find a pill for that too. Charlene Keener Joplin - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom