Source: Toronto Star (Canada) Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Pubdate: Tuesday, June 16, 1998 GLOBAL DRUG ARRANGEMENT JUST REEKS OF HYPOCRISY Re Global pact aims to end drug trade (June 9). Those who keep a watchful eye on international political matters will find much to ponder given the implications of the Global Drug Treaty. While it is commendable that leaders from more than 200 nations would put their differences aside in order to preserve "the future of families on every continent," the arrangement reeks of hypocrisy given the rhetoric of our modern times. When activists call out for international labour standards, human rights preservation, or global environmental treaties, we are told by our prominent leaders that these institutional arrangements contradict the dictum of free markets and, furthermore, are undesirable in an age of global economic flows and benevolent trade agreements. It's interesting how easily these same leaders can come together in the name of suffocating a part of the economy that they cannot control. Furthermore, the reasoning behind the agreement on narcotics is the same message that humanists have been preaching for years in the name of other causes. Do not sweatshops, income disparities and human rights abuses "erode the foundation of democracies, corrupt the integrity of market economies" as well? Is that not a "struggle for human freedom"? Marc Flynn Pickering - --- Checked-by: Mike Gogulski