Pubdate: Wed, 26 Jun 2002
Source: Ithaca Times (NY)
Copyright: Ithaca Times 2002
Contact:  http://www.ithacatimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1755
Author: Alan Randell
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1061/a05.html

BIASED REPORTING

Regarding the article "Uncertain Future", printed in the June 5 issue of 
the Times. On and on it goes. You and your media colleagues continue to 
immerse us in an endless torrent of "objective" news stories about drug 
busts and associated court cases without allowing a single word from those 
arrested, their families and friends or from those, like me, who oppose 
drug prohibition. Please stop reporting drug stories in the biased fashion.

There is no more reason to persecute drug users and distributors today than 
there was in the past to hang witches, lynch blacks or gas Jews. If you 
want to know how it came to be that most Germans acquiesced to Hitler's 
policies towards the Jews, you only have to realize that a flood of "news" 
stories like this has made us think that rousting innocent people off to 
jail is normal. We shrug and turn the page.

Are we better than the Nazis because our drug laws threaten an innocent 
minority with fines or jail rather than with execution?

Are we better than Hitler because we persecute an innocent minority because 
of the drugs they use or the plant they grow rather than because of the 
religion they follow? I think not.

Are you better than those German editors who published anti-Jew propaganda 
as instructed by Hitler's administration? Considering you have the freedom 
to present an objective account of these tragedies, I would say you're a 
lot worse.

ALAN RANDELL

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
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