Pubdate: Wed, 12 Jun 2002
Source: Maple Ridge News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 Maple Ridge News
Contact:  http://www.mapleridgenews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1328
Authors: Wayne Phillips, Harry D. Fisher
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1067/a07.html
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1058/a12.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

DRUG WAR CONTINUES, MOSTLY ON MARIJUANA

Editor, The News:

Re: Junkie's blues (News Views, June 5)

There's a hole in Daddy's arm where all the money goes.

And that's all the more reason to stress the need for adequate needle 
exchange programs, and how this is of such critical importance to any 
community.

No city can afford to be underfunding or, in any way diminishing this 
aspect of harm reduction. Being especially cognizant of this is critical in 
light of the fact that Vancouver set WORLD records for drug-overdose 
deaths, HIV and hepatitis C infections.

Of primary importance is the dire need for all levels of government to go 
beyond considering alternatives and making only token gestures to actually 
start implementing holistic programs that work. If that means less monies 
for law enforcement and, substantially more into 'harm reduction' programs, 
so be it. If it means legitimizing cannabis and using any revenue garnered 
from that, so be it.

Cannabis, doesn't spread HIV or cause cirrhosis of the liver, nor does it 
ravage the body or give rise to violent crime.

In that the RCMP's Drug Situation in Canada Report for 2001 states that 
heroin seizures were down by more than half from 2000 yet cannabis seizures 
increased, is there any wonder as to why Vancouver set world records for 
drug-overdose deaths, HIV and hepatitis C infections?

This doesn't even begin to figure cocaine and crack into the equation.

Wayne Phillips,

Hamilton, Ontario

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'Prison State' in U.S.

Editor, The News:

Re: Needle and the damage done (letters, June 5).

The reason that Laurie Geschke hangs out the Netherlands, Switzerland, and 
Germany as "bad" examples in the drug war, and Sweden as a model of 
prohibition, is that she longs for that perfect society where there are no 
drugs, including the ones that are legal now.

But the reality is that drugs are everywhere. However, some countries deal 
with their drug situation without building a prison state and the last time 
anyone looked, the three "bad" countries are doing fine, but with fewer 
people in prison. Clearly, they have not been destroyed by their 
intelligent and humane drug policies.

In spite of all the crocodile tears about impressionable youth and lessened 
productivity, the war on drugs is ruled by the bottom line. The cops, the 
lawyers, judges, jailers, drug testing companies, prison suppliers, 
virtually all within reach help themselves to the never-ending torrent of 
tax money, shoveled out by the government as it pursues its failed drug 
policy like an out-of-control train.

While drug warriors like Geschke are fond of talking about heroin, cocaine, 
and AIDS, they avoid the fact that the war on drugs is primarily a war on 
marijuana. Last year there were about 800,000 marijuana arrests in the 
U.S., and that's where the money is. Sure, every so often the cops bust a 
cartel and seize a ton of cocaine, but that doesn't mean money because they 
can't sell it.

The money is in the small day-to-day pot busts with the pleadings and the 
fines, the forfeitures, apart from the cost of the defence. As the offender 
loses property and pays through the nose, everybody gets paid again: the 
cops, the informers, the lawyers, shrinks and counselors, court clerks, and 
hordes of others.

And all this supposedly for that person's own good! What an racket! No 
wonder it's so hard to kill this drug war snake. It has a lot of hangers-on.

Harry D. Fisher

Woodland Hills, California
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager