Pubdate: Fri, 09 Jul 2004 Source: Langley Times (CN BC) Copyright: 2004 BC Newspaper Group and New Media Development Contact: http://www.langleytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1230 Author: Alan Randell Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n922/a03.html Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) METH LAB CONVICTION COMPARED TO HOLOCAUST Editor: Re: Meth lab operator gets extra five years, (The Times, June 23). In times past, most rulers oppressed their people with unremitting savagery. With the development of more educated populaces and the concomitant rise in democracy, despotic monarchs were generally replaced by elected governments who governed with the consent of the people and, for the most part, the lives of most individuals improved. However, the rise of high circulation newspapers made it possible for governments to convince even an educated readership that it was in their interests that their government do evil things to a minority of the population. Consider the Holocaust. Consider our drug laws. There is no more reason for punishing the users and distributors of certain supposedly harmful recreational drugs, and not the users and distributors of other harmful recreational drugs, than there was in the past for other majority-supported pogroms against identifiable minorities such as hanging witches, lynching blacks or gassing Jews. If you were to read every day in the paper that Jews were being slaughtered in extermination camps and the victims' voices are never heard, after a while, if you were not Jewish, you would become inured to the suffering, bored perhaps, and turn the page. We would care nothing for those affected or their families. It is routine. It is normal. Today, we read every day about people being arrested or shot by the cops because they use, manufacture or sell certain drugs, and the victims' voices are never heard. If you're not a user of those drugs, you become inured to the suffering, bored perhaps, and turn the page. You care nothing for those affected or their families. It is routine. It is normal. What to do? Assuming you care about innocent people being carted off to jail (possibly not, because persecuting a innocent minority does sell newspapers), please make your drug bust stories less one-sided in favour of the cops by including the comments of the individuals arrested and their families as well as, wherever possible, the comments of someone who opposes these laws. Please try to put a human face on the suffering. Alan Randell, Victoria - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake