Pubdate: Fri, 07 Mar 2003
Source: Idaho State Journal (ID)
Copyright: 2003 Idaho State Journal
Contact:  http://www.journalnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/936
Author: Peter B. Hull

READER'S VIEW: Drug paraphernalia raids

When I saw the front page on the Feb. 25 Journal, I wanted to stand up and 
shout "Long Live Soviet America!" In the land of so-called free enterprise, 
we have the Gestapo closing down legitimate businesses and arresting their 
owners.

I am, of course, referring to the raids conducted by the Drug Enforcement 
Agency and local police against Pegasus, Smokey's Den, and 20 After 4, 
along with many others across the state and nation. This demonstrates how 
desperate the government is getting. They don't want to admit the war on 
drugs is a failure, so they go after easy targets like small businesses.

Then, in the next day's paper, we learned that police actually called one 
of the business owners and told him the store had been robbed. Of course, 
this was a lie - the robbery did not occur until he got there, and the 
police were the robbers. As Ayn Rand once asked, "Who shall protect us from 
our protectors?"

Hasn't the government got anything better to do with our tax money than 
this? With the country in Orange Alert, they should rethink their 
priorities. Drug prohibition today is as much a failure as alcohol 
prohibition was in the 1920s. Hopefully, the voices of freedom and sanity 
will prevail, the war on drugs will be ended, John Ashcroft will be fired 
and the DEA abolished.

Peter B. Hull,

Pocatello
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart