Pubdate: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 Source: Revelstoke Times Review (CN BC) Copyright: 2005 Bowes Publishers Contact: http://www.revelstoketimesreview.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2139 Author: Chris Buors Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05.n946.a01.html MANITOBA READER BELIEVES COLUMNIST NEEDS AN INFUSION OF JEFFSONIANISM What a master propagandist Tom Fletcher is. For instance, (in his June 8 op-ed column, So-called "safe injection sites" are anything but safe) Mr. Fletcher rails against harm reduction as a "questionable bit social engineering" without considering that drug prohibition is not exactly the natural state of affairs. Mr. Fletcher alerts us to the Orwellian lesson that to control language is to control mankind, then proceeds to use strong control words himself. For instance, the notions of "hard/soft drug problem," "junkies" and "superficial perception" is using language George Orwell himself would identify as political. Hard and soft are moral judgments, not chemical properties. Moral judgment is based on a feminization scale not scientific fact. Junkies is a stigmatizing term, not a descriptive term. And speaking of superficial perceptions, is that not exactly what the "drug problem" is in the first place. The drug problem boils down to the fact that some people want to use drugs that other people don't want them to use. Over time and cultures the name of the substance changes. To rid ourselves of the contrived language that the state has dominated the viewpoint of an anthropologist would be enlightening to say the least. Ceremonial and ritual drug use is as old as humanity is itself. Opium and cannabis are the ceremonial and ritual substances of Asian cultures, coca is used in native South American cultures for the same reasons. Alcohol is the ceremonial drink of the Anglo Saxons. It is wine in the priest's goblet. What Tom Fletcher needs is a good dose of Jeffersonian wisdom to clear up any muddled thinking. Political correctness did not exist when Thomas Jefferson wrote that it was his observation that in order for the state to control the diet or medicines of the people, the state must also control the ideas the people have about those substances. Jefferson mentions that free people who have their thoughts shaped or controlled by the state are not free. In a free country, it is not the duty of the state to "help people get off drugs." It was never the duty of the state to lie or control the language of the debate, substance "abuse" indeed. I was once offered the opportunity to save my railroading career by attending treatment after being arrested for a cannabis offense. I knew that to be forced religious and political conversion but I did not know how to make the intellectual arguments. I know how now. Classic liberalism and the notion of individual responsibility is the trump card. Jefferson enlightened me. Truth stands on it's own and the state lies enshrined in the immoral policy of prohibition will look like laughable lies once the history books are written. Who are the aggressors is what history will want to know. The prohibitionist, the legislators, the courts that uphold these lies as constitutional and the politicians who set the social construct are the criminals. Chris Buors Winnipeg, Man. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin