Pubdate: Fri, 07 Mar 2003
Source: Royal Gazette, The (Bermuda)
Copyright: 2003 The Royal Gazette Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.theroyalgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2103
Author: John Q. Public

TIME TO DECRIMINALISE

Dear Sir,

I'd like to congratulate Bermuda's Drug Interdiction Squad for eradicating 
the Island of marijuana for the past month.

Way to go lads... now our choices are limited to heroin and crack cocaine, 
which are still available on any street corner. And, of course, alcohol, 
the drug that has caused more heartache and violence than any other in 
history. This county is insane, removing the safest recreational drug of 
all from our streets.

In my opinion, this is purely a political move made by brain-dead 
politicians and the Police and Customs as it is the only drug they can 
easily detect.

Buying into war mongering America's so called "war on drugs" is crazy. What 
war ever solved anything? Most sane countries around the world are 
decriminalising cannabis today or at least looking the other way.

They know the truth: marijuana is essentially harmless, non-addictive, and 
is consumed by peaceful people. Not one recorded death can be attributed to 
smoking cannabis.

Don't believe the misleading commercials on American TV ... that pot is a 
"gateway drug". Legal cigarettes and alcohol are the true gateway drugs and 
cause more damage to society than all others combined. Cannabis was only 
criminalised in Bermuda during the early 1960s before then it was not 
perceived as a problem.

Why now? Because of blatant ignorance, racism, dumb politics and pressure 
from the United States. Marijuana was made illegal in the States during the 
late 1930s as a result of sensationalistic articles by the racist Hearst 
newspaper chain. They portrayed "Negroes" and Mexicans as frenzied beasts 
who, under the influence of marijuana, would play anti-white 
"voodoo-satanic" music (jazz) and heap disrespect and "viciousness" upon 
the predominately white readership.

Other such offences resulting from this drug-induced "crime wave" included: 
stepping on white men's shadows, looking white people directly in the eye 
for three seconds or more, looking at a white woman twice, laughing at a 
white person, etc.

It was all helped along by the again racist, Southern Congressman, Herman 
Oliphant, and the first director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now 
the DEA.), another racist, Harry J. Anslinger, who were trying to score 
political points at the cost of Afro Americans' and Mexicans' freedom.

You can read all about the truth in the excellent book, 'The Emperor Wears 
No Clothes' by Jack Herer, a newly updated version of which is available 
from Amazon.com.

However, what really scares me in Bermuda right now is the number of 
harmless pot smokers, who cannot get their drug of choice, and who will try 
the truly deadly drug, heroin, and become addicted (it has happened before 
during the pot drought in the early 1980s).

Not to mention all the violence that's going on now as a result of alcohol 
and crack abuse. That's the real evil folks! Think people, think!... it is 
time to decriminalise marijuana now, and stop all the ignorant lies 
surrounding the safest recreational drug in the world.

JOHN Q. PUBLIC Sandys Parish
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom