Pubdate: Thu, 02 May 2002 Source: Valley Voice, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2002 The Valley Voice Contact: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1388 Note: No known website. Contact data not verified. Author: Chris Buors RESTORE RIGHT TO TAKE DRUGS One of the scare tactics and pieces of untruthful information Cst. Mick Wicentowich uses in his letter to the editor is his assertion that there is such a thing as "harder drugs such as cocaine." The World Health Organization informed the world three years ago that alcohol and tobacco were by far more harmful than heroin, cocaine and cannabis. It is only on the demonization scale where the concept of 'harder drugs' exists. All drugs are combinations of chemicals found in the periodic table. Dr. Andrew Wiel concluded in his bestseller book "From Chocolate to Morphine" that there was no such thing as a good drug or a bad drug, only good or bad relationships with drugs. What the well-intentioned constable does not understand is that it is not the purpose of police to teach children. The police exert subtle influence and that influence gives credence to whatever their position is. That observation did not escape Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister. The idea that drugs are so dangerous that they have to be controlled is political. John Stuart Mill and Thomas Jefferson, classic liberals, did not believe that the state ought to control drugs in any respect. No patent rights, no prescription rights and no prohibitions. Classic liberalism is better known as libertarianism today. As a Libertarian, I have to argue politics with Communists, the New Democrats, the Liberals, the Conservatives, the Alliance and all other political entities. I ask Cst. Wicentowich why it is I have to argue politics with the police. The ceremonial aspect of drug taking is as old as mankind is itself; is that taught in DARE? The police have no political opinion on abortion, no political opinion on the deficit, no political opinion on any other topic except drugs; why is that? Cst. Wicentowich is blinded by his good intentions. He does not see that the police in Canada and America, in the name of the drug war, have become no better than the Gestapo. After all, the Gestapo only wanted to instill the 'right' morals in the children too. Drug taking is a vice, not a crime or a medical disorder. Restore our natural right to drugs, all of them. It is a right mankind has owned since time began. "Were the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potato as an article of food. Government is just as infallible, [sic] too, when it fixes systems in physics. Galileo was sent to the Inquisition for affirming that the earth was a sphere...It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself." - Thomas Jefferson Chris Buors Winnipeg - --- MAP posted-by: Josh