Pubdate: Wed, 24 Feb 1999
Source: Canberra Times (Australia)
Contact:  http://www.canberratimes.com.au/
Author: Peter Wigley

BLINKERED DRUG PROHIBITIONISTS MUST CHANGE THEIR TUNE

I HAVE just returned home after chasing two men around my suburb and finally
losing them in the city centre.

The reason for my interest in these men was based in my belief that they
were intent on "borrowing" some of my neighbour's possessions to further
their drug career.

This is of course not an isolated incident.

Over the past eight weeks my business, based in Northbourne Avenue, Braddon,
has been broken into successfully twice and is vandalised in attempted
break-ins almost every weekend.

The consensus of opinion among the insurance and police folk is that the
offenders are "druggies" looking for a hundred dollars or so for their next
fix. These break-ins have resulted in bills of approximately $3000 for glass
and security-system repairs and $3000 to replace a notebook computer (with
tens of thousands of dollars' worth of lost information which is of course
not recoverable under insurance). I am constantly amazed that any-one can
still lend an ear to the prohibitionists who, through some sort of learning
impairment, self-interest, or perhaps from a blindness induced by being too
close to the drug industry, cannot see that there is a proven and desperate
need to at least try something different against this problem.

I do not believe for a moment that decriminalising hard drugs will stop all
crime. But, there is abundant evidence that, like the backyard abortion
issue, the vast bulk of the danger, suffering and immense cost be could be
stopped virtually overnight for both the direct participants and the rest of
the community if only our leaders were bright enough, brave enough, and
humble enough to reassess the evidence and admit that they were wrong.

PETER WIGLEY, Reid

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