Pubdate: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 Source: Lethbridge Herald (CN AB) Copyright: 2004 The Lethbridge Herald Contact: http://www.mysouthernalberta.com/leth/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/239 Author: Frank Lavoie Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n526/a04.html PROHIBITIONISTS PLAY VITAL ROLE IN DRUG TRADE Editor: Re: Border busts doing little to stop drugs, April 1, The Herald It is sad to read Const. Jeff Smith of the RCMP Rocky Mountain Border Enforcement Team subscribes to the U.S. drug war propaganda illusion that stiffer sentences are somehow a deterrent to traffickers. In reality, it only increases profits and fosters organized crime. "If left unchecked..."? ha, you jest, sir! It is, and will always be, unchecked as part of immutable human nature and enterprise, as long as you fail to realize that as part of the delusion of prohibition, you are a calculated and politically necessary part of the business, keeping it profitable. Research the current situation here in Cochise County, Ariz., and the stats for the past two months on illegal immigrants and seized drugs for an insight into the part you really play. The realization will eventually dawn on all, that enlightened citizens will solve this problem when we face reality and criminalize prohibition, prosecute prohibitionists as the enablers and deluded enrichers of organized crime, and make the essential distinction that it's not the drugs, stupid, it's the behaviour we should be concerned with, that is, if it actually impacts someone negatively, something the "drug war" does continuously by blindly chasing its own "tales." Truth and dignity will prevail, sir, not your delusions. Frank Lavoie, Tombstone - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager