Pubdate: Wed, 06 Feb 2008 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2008 The Province Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 Referenced: http://drugsense.org/url/QZyAMMtN Author: F. Ron Yorston FIND HUMANE SOLUTIONS As long as humans have walked this earth, we've sought shortcuts to feeling good. Spiritual and physical discipline simply take too much effort for most of us. Enter drugs, including alcohol, and voila -- a faster route to ecstasy has been found! But there are no "free lunches" with drugs, and the price may be your life. Prohibition doesn't work. Try banning sex -- people will always find a way. Alcohol prohibition gave birth to organized crime, which has grown and been nurtured by illegal-drug distribution. The "war on drugs" in the U.S. is a war on ordinary folks who have fallen into the clutches of that fast track to feeling good. This war is doomed to failure because society is at war with itself. There are no easy answers, but we should accept that addiction won't disappear and get on with humane solutions to it. As addict Dean Wilson said, we should stop making bad people rich by maintaining prohibition. F. Ron Yorston, Delta - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom