Source: Edmonton Sun (Canada)
Contact:  http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonSun/ 
Pubdate: 20 September 1998
Author: Kathy Galbraith

Comment: Parenthetical remarks by the Sun editor, headline by hawk

YOUR COMMENT that systemic corruption is "hardly the rule" in the war on
drugs shows your extreme lack of knowledge. Try reading Mike Gray's expose
Drug Crazy, How We Got Into This Mess & How We Can Get Out, published by
Random House.

From Page 190: "Far and away the most ominous byproduct is the corrosive
flood of illegal cash that is lapping at the country's (America's)
foundations. Honest cops everywhere are watching in dismay as their
departments are sucked under by payoffs at every level. Former San Jose
police chief Joseph McNamara says it's eating us alive. "Every week,
somewhere across the country, there is another police scandal related to
the drug war - corruption, brutality - even armed robbery by cops in uniform."

The sad thing is that the whole mess could be cut off simply by closing the
black market money tap. We go to Shoppers Drug Mart to buy our codeine,
muscle relaxants and seratonin. Why the heck not all drugs?  That would
allow them to be used by those who need them, the cash would flow to
legitimate business people, and the black market would dry up.  Too many
corrupt people have too much money to lose by the drug war ending. Those
are the facts.

Kathy Galbraith

(No, they aren't. They are one reality as documented by one person. Drug
regulation has its place. We like people who are high on the real things, a
shoe shine, a tank of gas and a breath of fresh air.)

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Checked-by: Pat Dolan