Pubdate: Wed, 25 Feb 2004
Source: Ashcroft Cache Creek Journal, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2004 Ashcroft Cache Creek Journal
Contact:  http://www.ash-cache-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3157
Authors: Alan Randell, Eleanor Randell

DRUG LAWS UNFAIR

Editor, The Journal

Re Street value of grow-op marijuana - $1.5 million, Feb. 17

Why do governments prohibit certain drugs?

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. Many more people died from the effects of bad booze during 
Prohibition than when alcohol was legally available. The harm argument is 
moot in any event because 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, etc.) than when the 
drug is legally available.

Is it a brutal, Hitler-like pogrom to distract and entertain the majority 
by ruining the lives of the INNOCENT minority who ingest or sell certain 
drugs? BINGO!

In short, drugs are highly useful, functional and beneficial scapegoats.

They provide a ruling class with fig leaves to place over the unsightly 
social ills that are endemic to the social system over which they preside 
and they give the general public a focus for blame in which a chemical 
'bogeyman,' or the 'deviants' who ingest it, are the root cause for a wide 
array of complex social problems.

And of course, The Ascroft Cache Creek Journal, along with the rest of the 
establishment media, wholeheartedly supports this campaign by excluding 
from drug bust stories such as this the opinions of those who oppose this law.

Alan & Eleanor Randell Victoria
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom