Pubdate: Mon, 21 Mar 2005
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2005 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Scott Miller

DRUG HYSTERIA

I had the misfortune of seeing on television the embarrassing spectacle of 
our federal lawmakers aggressively grilling some of Major League Baseball's 
biggest stars in the ill-conceived, over-reaching, grandstanding steroid 
hearings. Merely perpetuating America's ridiculous hysteria over drugs, 
these hearings revealed the deep hypocrisy in America over issues like 
this. When the use of other more socially acceptable drugs like Viagra, 
alcohol, nicotine and caffeine reach epidemic proportions, Congress has now 
improperly inserted itself into an area that is none of its business.

The truly destructive message being sent to American kids now is that 
privacy doesn't matter, that government can stick its nose anywhere it 
wants, whether or not it has actual constitutional jurisdiction, and that 
mindless hysteria solves problems. Maybe this will show us once and for all 
that the mindless "Just Say No" campaign of the '80s and '90s, and the 
invasive practice of businesses imposing drug testing on their employees 
for no reasons relevant to their work, have made an intelligent, healthy 
discussion of drugs impossible.

Yes we need to teach kids that steroids can hurt them, if that is a 
problem. But how about a little less self-righteous posturing from 
Congress, and how about exposing conservatives for claiming to want less 
government when in reality they want more invasive, more oppressive 
government whenever it suits their purposes?

Scott Miller

St. Louis 
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