Pubdate: Tue, 02 Mar 2004
Source: Pensacola News Journal (FL)
Copyright: 2004 The Pensacola News Journal
Contact:  http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1675
Author: Zac Arnold

NO ONE'S A CONTINENT

If I choose to imbibe a substance, I should do so responsibly. I
should take proper steps to insure that injury to myself or others
does not occur. I am quite capable of doing so and do not need "big
brother" telling me it's forbidden simply because too many people are
ignorant of the difference between the words "use" and "abuse."
Contrary to popular anti-drug rhetoric, they are not synonymous.

Furthermore, I lament seeing my tax dollars go to pay for the
prosecution of one who wants to sit in his house and get high. Our
laws should focus toward crimes with victims, such as rape, murder and
theft.

We go after drunk drivers, not people who drink alcohol. By all means
be heavy-handed with people who abuse a substance and injure people as
a result of that abuse, but responsible users harm no one and should
be tolerated.

No man is an island, true. But nor are we one single, conglomerate
landmass. We are individuals and as history has shown, the rights of
the people as a whole suffer when the rights of the individuals who
make up that whole suffer.

Zac Arnold, Pensacola
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake