Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jan 2007
Source: Times-Standard (Eureka, CA)
Copyright: 2007 MediaNews Group, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.times-standard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1051
Author: Jim Garvey
Note: Jim Garvey, a resident of Rio Dell, is a retired peace officer 
and is a past member of the Humboldt County Grand Jury.

IT'S A HELLHOLE, ALL RIGHT -- DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER

The war on drugs is a failure, and it is a scourge on our society. 
Snappy little slogans like "Just say No!" really don't get the job 
done when kids in junior high school make $500 a week or more selling 
"dope" to their friends. Captain Murl Harpham of the Eureka Police 
Department was right when he said, "Eureka is becoming a hellhole," 
but there are those who wish to shoot the messenger.

Unfortunately, Eureka is just another small little town that has been 
compromised by the drugs, for there are thousands of little towns 
across this country that have the same problem, and we as a society 
continue to ignore the problem or lay the blame on other conditions.

Recently in the papers a mother blamed "The System" for the death of 
her son rather than face reality, but what can you expect? We even 
have "no fault insurance."

We go to our doctor with a life-threatening illness and we expect our 
doctor and the medical staff to do everything in their power to 
combat this illness, and we wouldn't settle for anything less. Yet 
day after day we continue to "kid glove" this problem rather than 
take the necessary measures to prevent our society from destroying 
it's greatest asset, its youth.

In 1949, when Mao Tse-Tung took over control of Red China, he was 
faced with a huge problem, for a significant portion of the 
population were addicted to opium and this was destroying the country 
from within. Mao ordered that all opium dens be closed and anyone 
using opium be put to death. Four years and 44 million people later, 
Mao didn't have an opium problem in his country or any other 
drug-related problem in his country. Today, China still doesn't have 
significant drug problem, for those who are caught with drugs are put 
to death immediately.

Singapore is a nation on the Malay Peninsula and is probably the 
cleanest country, and its capitol Singapore is probably the cleanest 
city in Asia if not in the world. This is due in a large part to the 
government taking on those problems which plague society with regards 
to civic matters and social matters.

About 10 years ago there was an American businessman who was in 
Singapore accompanied by his son, who was there for summer vacation. 
One evening this 16-year-old decided to go out and spray tag several 
of the cars in the area, and he was caught by the authorities.

This would be considered a misdemeanor in our legal system and it was 
also considered a misdemeanor in the Singapore legal system, but the 
punishment was completely different from our western standards. This 
young man was taken to a public place and tied to a post and striped 
to his waist. He was then beaten 15 times across his back with a 
bamboo cane and then released to his father. Within 24 hours this 
young man was back on a plane to Santa Barbara and his mummy, for 
summer vacation in Singapore wasn't fun anymore.

If you are caught in Singapore with drugs, you are immediately put in 
prison for a term of five years, and in that five years you undergo a 
rehabilitation program that will allow you to compete on a skill 
level with the rest of society. In short, you are re-educated and 
given a skill to compete in the 21st century so when you are released 
out into the population again you have a job and a skill.

If you are caught again, you are sentenced to five years of "hard 
labor" and then again released out into the population. If you are 
caught again with drugs, you are given 48 hours to notify your family 
as to where your remains should be sent. After 48 hours, you are 
taken out into the prison yard and shot dead.

Since the 1960s with the death of President Kennedy, Martin Luther 
King and Robert Kennedy, there has been a total breakdown of 
discipline within this country with regards to our society. We have 
in some respects adopted the attitude of passive behavior in the face 
of harmful behavior.

This happened once before in our society in 1939 and led to a world 
war, for we as a society did not want to stand up to a bully (Adolph 
Hitler) in Europe.

If we as a nation and a society do not address this issue in a more 
forceful way, we will eventually sow the seeds of our own 
destruction. If we continue to put people into prison without a 
comprehensive program of rehabilitation and without dire consequences 
if that rehabilitation is violated, then we as a society have cheated 
our youth of a chance to achieve greatness.

Common sense dictates that we do the "right thing," and sometimes 
doing the "right thing" can be painful, and shooting the messenger 
doesn't help.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman