Pubdate: Tue, 17 Jun 2008
Source: North Island Gazette (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 North Island Gazette
Contact:  http://www.northislandgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2783
Author: Chris Buors
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n582/a11.html

DRUG USERS CAUSE OWN PAIN

Dear editor,

Can letter writer Gloria Walkus explain what the government could 
have taken to save her from her own drug taking? The criminal laws 
were already in place.

Drugs have been demonized for more than 100 years so Gloria must have 
been the only person in Canada who was not warned about the evils of 
getting involved with drug abuse.

Lost, hurt, lonely, ashamed, angry ... that's spiritual stuff the 
government ought not be doing.

I would suggest Gloria was in control of every drug that passed her 
lips, since all that is freely willed behaviour.

What kind of help did Gloria need? Soul doctoring is the answer, but 
we have a separation of state and religion in Canada, and that's why 
addictions counsellors cannot do whatever it takes. What it takes is 
a decision on the part of the drug taker to quit.

Canadians ought to repeal drug prohibition. The criminalization of 
sinners is not helping anyone, and in fact does a great deal of harm.

Only socialists believe the nonsense that it takes a community to 
raise a child. It takes good parenting to instill the character 
needed to resist the temptation of adult pleasures.

Judeo-Christian values are called "traditional" because they were 
invented for that purpose.

Yielding to the temptation of pleasure drugs is a disease only in a 
metaphorical sense.

Good and bad can be readily exchanged with healthy and unhealthy behaviors.

Canadians have learned how to do all our moralizing in medical 
sounding language in what has evolved into a therapeutic state. 
Disease, treatment and cure have replaced sin, repentance and 
redemption to meet the intellectual expectations of our age.

But nothing has changed since Jefferson's time. Only the individual 
can channel their own energies. Nobody else can make the decision to 
change your life except you.

All this nonsense of everybody needing help. Who does that serve? Are we crazy?

The helpers are clergymen by definition, not clinicians though the 
language is medical sounding.

Benefactors and malefactors have existed since time began and they 
don't need any help from the government to find each other.

Some are rolling in the gutter looking to be saved, and some are 
patrolling the gutters looking for someone to save.

That should be church business-all of it.

Chris Buors

Winnipeg, Manitoba
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom