Pubdate: Sat, 30 Dec 2000 Date: 12/30/2000 Source: Hull Daily Mail (UK) Author: Carl Wagner Poverty, social injustice and drug prohibition are the main causes of crime, not drug usage. Nothing promotes disrespect for authority more than unjust and unworkable laws and if the collective minds of Government can't come up with something better than fines for the poor, curfews for the innocent and prison for drug addicts, then we're surely doomed. The only solution to the drug problem is to legalise all drugs, a concept many people find hard to accept but it's worth remembering that in the age before prohibition, drug crime was unheard of. We now have prisons overflowing with drug users. Where addicts lived normal lives, we have shattered families. Where overdoses were extremely rare we have hundreds of drug deaths every year due to less pure and more potent concoctions being sold on the street. And today, kids have a better chance of going to prison than university. These are the consequences of an insane campaign of lies and suppression that has caused far more trouble than illicit drugs themselves ever could. Carl Wagner, Prospective Candidate, Legalise Cannabis Alliance