Pubdate: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 Source: Medicine Hat News (CN AB) Copyright: 2004 Alberta Newspaper Group, Inc. Contact: http://www.medicinehatnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1833 Author: Alan Randell READER FIRED UP OVER RECREATIONAL-DRUG LAWS Re: Police Seize Drug Stash, Jan. 19 News Another day, another piece of propaganda served up by the media to support one of the most oppressive and brutal programs ever conjured by the mind of man, drug prohibition. It's propaganda because, as usual, those of us who oppose these ridiculous laws are not permitted to be heard. If drugs are banned because they're harmful, why don't we ban alcohol and tobacco? Let's face facts here. The government decided to ban some harmful recreational drugs but not other harmful recreational drugs for one reason and one reason only: To distract and entertain the majority by persecuting an innocent minority. Drug prohibition was initiated a hundred years ago to control certain non-white minorities by banning the drugs used by those minorities. One thing for sure, drug prohibition has nothing to do with protecting anyone from anything. Rather, drug scares serve as functional scapegoats. They give the general public a focus for blame in which a chemical bogeyman or the 'deviants' who ingest it, are the root cause for a wide array of complex social problems. Alan Randell Victoria, B.C. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin