Pubdate: Tue, 10 Dec 2002
Source: Ledger-Enquirer (GA)
Copyright: 2002 Ledger-Enquirer
Contact:  http://www.l-e-o.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/237
Author: Buster Jones
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)

POLICE, NOT DRUGS, ARE THE PROBLEM

We really don't have a "drug problem." We have a police problem, because 
the police have a problem with the truth.

Suzanne Pheil, a partially paralyzed post-polio patient who was handcuffed 
to her bed by the DEA, says we are not the victims of drug traffickers; we 
are victims of the DEA. With a gun to her head, the DEA stole the medicine 
that over 250 sick and dying people worked to grow.

Our marijuana policy is the use of state violence, even against paralyzed 
women, to maintain prohibition at all cost. Narcs with only a high school 
education are regularly quoted as authorities on child psychology, 
psychopharmacology, botany, medicine, social policies, economics, and above 
all else, the motives of those who criticize them.

After more than 30 years of prohibition, I am all the more convinced that 
until we address the problem of official lying to justify state violence 
against marijuana users, we will continue to lose our freedom and our 
ability to function as a democratic society. In short, we really don't have 
a "drug problem." We have a police problem, because the police have a 
problem with the truth. And that includes the DARE program.

BUSTER JONES, Albany, Ga.
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