Sometimes I am afraid to say the numbers out loud, but it looks like for every $1.5 million taxpayer dollars spent on policing and every two weeks we produce a dead body. Since the first of the year how many dead bodies have we to date? Don't forget to include the dead drug-addicted homeless and street prostitutes that die under a bridge of natural causes. It's just like a factory and a production line and a just in time delivery system. Call it a self-perpetuating, money-burning people-killing machine or call it drug prohibition - same thing. Tim Felger Abbotsford [end]
Editor: Making ingredients illegal won't make crystal meth go away, only more toxic and violent. There are good reasons to legalize, then regulate and then even tax crystal meth. Foolishly, our present government policy of drug prohibition is injecting price increases and violence into the black market. Making it more illegal will only make it more toxic and violent. I agree crystal meth is poison; the question is how to control it without eroding our freedoms and making the problems worse. [continues 186 words]
Editor: In response to your editorial (The Times, Feb. 11), this is an open letter to Solicitor General John Les. Making ingredients illegal won't make crystal meth go away. It will only become more toxic, and lead to more violence. There are good reasons to legalize, then regulate and even tax crystal meth. Foolishly, our present government policy of drug prohibition is injecting price increases and violence into the black market, and then abdicating the right to decide the following: [continues 401 words]
Editor, The Times: I enjoyed the mock gun duel picture of Christina Toth and Ken Henry [Page 3, Abbotsford-Mission Times, Nov. 18]. The picture shows that Christina is not only beautiful and intelligent, but that she has a sense of humour. As for the letter by June Wilkinson that she does not like all the gun violence, then end the drug war. Declare peace. Drug prohibition manufactures crime, street-level prostitution and violence. Until the new city council accepts a presentation on harm reduction, the violence will continue to escalate. The addicted and homeless will continue to suffer. [continues 179 words]
Editor: Your story (The Times, Sept. 17) about the efforts of Langley City to rid the area of drug dealers and prostitution is a joke, right? To deny that the demand exists is to deny reality. Supply will always fill demand, and it will take place in the park or a licenced establishment. Have you heard of Da Kine in Vancouver? If you don't want pot deals going down on the street, then change the law, but quit putting people in jail for a victimless crime. Marijuana is not a drug, and prostitution between two adults is fine and should be legal. I think we should have kept feeding the Christians to the lions, but we have evolved, haven't we? Tim Felger, Bradner [end]
The Abbotsford police are operating with antique police techniques. Prior to 1880 the western provincial police forces took their guidance from the RCMP. The RCMP policed a wild frontier and were not expressly police, they were also styled military. Their criminals had no charter of rights and they "always got their man." I expect Abbotsford police chief Ian Mackenize to understand the difference between modern, Charter-friendly policing and the paramilitary techniques he insists on using. It is not that the courts are too soft on criminals, it is that the judges see what crimes with real victims are on a daily basis. [continues 238 words]
It is time for MP Randy White [Langley-Abbotsford] to shut up and sit down . He used his influence to hold a town meeting in May of 1999 and did not allow the opposition to speak. He has spent over $1 million of taxpayer money and time developing a new national drug strategy. The report he filed did not include a tiny mention about the CIA and their connection to cocaine and marijuana. Does White not remember the Iran contra affair? It is a fact that the CIA introduced crack cocaine to the U.S. market in the 1980s. [continues 372 words]
Editor, The News: Recently you have witnessed my rallies, seen ground breaking historical events throughout the media; and you might ask yourself why I do what I do, So maybe I can give you some insight. Nearly all the harm done to users and non-users alike by illegal drugs is because the drugs are prohibited. Thousands were poisoned by adulterated booze during prohibition. Thousands more are dying today because of adulterated drugs. If that weren't bad enough, prohibition nurtures crime. Al Capone was created by prohibition, not the other way around. [continues 269 words]
