Pubdate: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 Source: Medicine Hat News (CN AB) Copyright: 2005 Alberta Newspaper Group, Inc. Contact: http://www.medicinehatnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1833 Author: Alan Randell DRUG PROHIBITION ISN'T THE EASY ANSWER Re: Cop Shares Facts on Street Drug Scene, A3, Jan. 29 I have a few questions for Const. Chris Sheehan of the Medicine Hat Police Service about his evident support for drug prohibition. 1. Is it not true banning a drug harms users because it forces them to rely on a drugs whose potency and purity are unknown? Weren't thousands of alcohol users poisoned and blinded during Prohibition? Didn't the dying and the blinding stop when alcohol was legalized again? My wife and I became well acquainted with that aspect of government policy when we lost our youngest son to street heroin in 1993. 2. If drugs are banned because they are harmful to users, why then are tobacco and alcohol not banned? Doesn't this seem unfair to those who prefer illegal drugs? If we ban one harmful drug, shouldn't we ban all harmful drugs? 3. Is it not true the violence surrounding the illegal drug trade exists because these drugs are banned, and if the drugs were legalized the violence would diminish? Is it not true there was a lot more violence surrounding the alcohol trade during Prohibition than after it was ended? How does the violence of the illegal drug trade compare with that of the tobacco trade? 4. Is it not true if meth were legalized, the manufacturing process would be subject to government safety regulations and would hence be no more dangerous to the workers, to the neighbours or to the environment than the average distillery is today? 5. If prohibition is so great, why did America give up on the prohibition of alcohol? For me, there is no more reason to punish drug users and dealers today than there was in the past to hang witches, lynch blacks, incarcerate Japanese-Canadians or gas Jews. Drug prohibition is nothing less than a state-sanctioned program directed against an identifiable minority (innocent drug users and distributors) to first, ostracize them, and then, to annihilate them. Alan Randell, Medicine Hat - --- MAP posted-by: Josh