Pubdate: Tue, 01 May 2001 Source: Langley Advance (CN BC) Copyright: 2001 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc. Contact: http://www.langleyadvance.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1248 Author: Alan Randell Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n668/a04.html POT USE PERSONAL Dear Editor, So, as long as only a few are denied their rights, it's okay? [Tokers stoked, April 13, Feature Letter, Advance News]. There's more in common between the pogroms of the past and Canada's drug laws than mere numbers. There is no more justification for persecuting those who ingest, manufacture, or distribute drugs today than there was in the past for burning witches at the stake, lynching blacks, or gassing Jews. I encourage you to debate seriously the issue of drug prohibition instead of just poking fun at those who disagree with you. Here are a few questions to get the debate started. Why do you believe that the state has the right to punish people for what they choose to ingest into their own bodies? Do not free adults have the right to ingest any drug, however harmful? Why are some drugs banned while others equally harmful are not? Why was Prohibition ended? Did Al Capone create Prohibition or was it the other way around? Did the experience of Prohibition show us that more users died when a drug is banned, or fewer? Alan Randell, Victoria - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk