Pubdate: Tue, 22 May 2001
Source: Daily Telegraph (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 News Limited
Contact:  http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/113
Author: Piers Akerman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

DOPEY ARGUMENT

THE NSW Health Department acknowledges that there is no reliable data 
to show that legal shooting galleries are of any value.

Similarly, the US Supreme Court cannot find any scientific evidence 
that cannabis is effective or better than any conventional medicine.

These facts were enough to unleash an irrational torrent of illogic 
from Dr Michael Dawson, of the University of Technology, who argues 
that popular illegal drugs should be decriminalised.

In a letter responding to last Thursday's column, he also attacked 
its content with the non sequitur that there was no mention of the 
damage alcohol had wreaked on some Aboriginal communities.

The reason that was not mentioned is simple.

The report on the dangers of marijuana to Aboriginals in the Northern 
Territory, which was quoted, didn't discuss the well-known tragic 
effects of alcohol.

The real tragedy of Dr Dawson's letter, however, lies not in his 
failure to refer to the well-publicised views of the NSW Health 
Department or the US Supreme Court, as the column did, but in the 
revelation that someone in some way involved with an institute of 
learning could present such an illogical argument.
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe