Pubdate: Sun, 09 Jun 2002
Source: Times, The (LA)
Copyright: 2002 The Times
Contact:  http://www.shreveporttimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1019
Author: Alan Randell
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n997/a07.html

DRUG ARREST REPORTS BASED ON PROPAGANDA

Re: May 26 special report on the drug Ecstasy.

Doesn't The Times think it's time for it and its media colleagues to 
stop immersing us in a torrent of police press reports about drugs 
without allowing a word from those arrested, their families or from 
those who, like me, oppose drug prohibition?

Drug prohibition is nothing less than a brutal Hitler-like pogrom 
designed by government to distract our attention from more important 
issues by ruining the lives of the innocent few who ingest or sell 
certain drugs.

Doesn't The Times think it's time it saw through the propaganda put 
out by government that drugs are prohibited to protect users? Users 
suffer more (adulterated drugs and jail time) when a drug is banned 
as compared with when it legally is available. Besides, two of our 
more harmful drugs, alcohol and tobacco, are legal. Are we better 
than the Nazis because our drug laws threaten an innocent minority 
with jail rather than with execution? Are we better than Adolf Hitler 
because we persecute an innocent minority because of the drugs they 
use rather than because of the religion they follow? I think not.

Doesn't The Times think it's time to renew its acquaintance with the 
Bill of Rights?
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MAP posted-by: Josh