Pubdate: Sat, 09 Mar 2002
Source: Daily Independent, The (KY)
Copyright: 2002 The Daily Independent, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.dailyindependent.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1573
Author: Allan Erickson, Kirk Muse
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n385/a04.html
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n358/a05.html

DRUG TESTING

Prohibition Harming Our Constitution

I've read both Myron Von Hollingsworth's letter, "Drug testing should be up 
to parents," Feb. 28, and the response by Tim Hodges, "Drug testing letter 
draws a response," March Mar 3.

Perhaps Mr. Von Hollingsworth needs to explain in detail how prohibition is 
destroying our constitution, and how through no-knock raids, seizure of 
personal medical and legal papers and the use of "confidential" informants 
(snitches, often convicted felons) who need not appear in  court, we are 
losing the rights our founders fought so hard to provide.

Or he could explain how sentencing disparities between crack and powder 
cocaine unfairly targets the black community.

Mr. Von Hollingsworth could also go into detail on how the injustices (like 
illegal seizures) perpetrated by the King of England on our colonists led 
to the freedoms Mr. Hodges enjoys today and how our government is 
perpetrating these same oppressive policies in the name of the war on 
(some) drugs.

It is an easy equation: Prohibition equals failure. Always has, always will.

The only benefit to prohibition is to the criminals who gain overly 
inflated, tax-free profits dealing unregulated commodities and to the 
machine of enforcement and incarceration. Strange isn't it how the ``land 
of the free" is also now the world leader in imprisoning its population.

Allan Erickson

Eugene, Ore.

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Perhaps The Police Should Go Further

I'm writing about Tim Hodges' March 3 letter: "Drug testing draws a response."

Perhaps police should go a little further and require everybody to be 
subject to random body searches, including body cavity searches. Obviously, 
only those guilty of using or selling illegal drugs will object.

Since cancer and heart disease kill a lot more people than illegal drugs 
and it is common knowledge that poor diet choices cause both cancer and 
heart disease, perhaps the police should arrest and jail people who eat 
cheeseburgers or french fries -- for their own good, of course. Nowhere in 
the U. S. Constitution is there a right to eat unhealthy foods.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens