Pubdate: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 Source: Airdrie Echo (CN AB) Copyright: 2003 Airdrie Echo Contact: http://www.airdrieecho.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1558 Author: Alan Randell, http://www.mapinc.org/writers/Alan+Randell DRUG PROHIBITION A 'HITLER-LIKE HORROR' Dear Editor: Another day, another warmed over police press release served up by the media to persuade us to support drug prohibition, a Hitler-like government program intended to distract attention away from government failures in other areas and to provide a measure of vicarious enjoyment for the non-poor by persecuting the poor. Drug prohibition began during the early years of the 20th century as a means of suppressing blacks, Mexicans and Chinese by banning the drugs these minorities used. Today, it has become a tool for the cops to control and/or harass those whose appearance or lifestyle they disapprove of. As far as marijuana goes, this racially inspired crusade is getting a bit silly. Marijuana is, for all intents and purposes, a legal drug. The people have spoken. Millions of hard-working and productive Canadians use the stuff, including some, I don't doubt, on your staff. The police should be told to stop wasting their time and our money pulling up plants and do what we pay them to do -- protect us from dangerous criminals. Besides, why should the cops get their marijuana free, while the rest of us have to pay for it? No government has the right to punish anyone for ingesting anything, however harmful, including heroin and other "hard" drugs. Therefore, please stop reporting on the drug war as if it were the most normal thing in the world to jail people for what they choose to ingest into their own bodies. Please wake up and begin reporting on drug prohibition as the Hitler-like horror it is. Alan Randell Victoria - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake