Pubdate: Sat, 10 Jul 2010
Source: Evansville Courier & Press (IN)
Copyright: 2010 The Evansville Courier Company
Contact:  http://www.courierpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/138
Note: Delbert Rankin is a resident of Evansville.
Author: Delbert Rankin

TURN DRUG WAR AGAINST USERS

If a neighbor throws his garbage out into his yard and leaves it, it
won't be long before your neighborhood will be swarming with flies.
The same is true for mosquitoes if the water is allowed to collect in
buckets or tires and such.

Having the authorities come out and swat a few flies or mosquitoes
won't come close to solving the problem. You have to get rid of the
garbage or the water. Nothing else will work.

The point is that drug dealers, like flies and mosquitoes, are drawn
into neighborhoods by the garbage that buys what they're selling.

Garbage is garbage, whether it's your son or my granddaughter or the
nice neighbor kid you watched grow up; and excusing them only makes
the problem worse.

These are the people who attract the dealers. They are the ones who
bring the dealers into your neighborhood and into our country and the
crimes they commit protecting their "turf" are on the shoulders of the
users.

You don't allow your child to bring drug dealers into your home, so
why would you let him bring drug dealers into your
neighborhood?

There are too many of us blaming everybody but ourselves for our
problems.

Grocery stores don't make you fat. Cigar stores don't make you smoke.
Taverns don't make you drink. Drug dealers don't make anyone use drugs.

To get rid of the dealers we have to get rid of the users. The money
that is made on these drugs is too good to pass up.

Jail doesn't scare anybody because when they get out the market and
the enormous profits will still be there. They will live good whether
they are in or out of jail.

We can either face reality or ruin -- and ruin is the way we've been
going.

Fifty years of this absolutely futile "war on drugs" is insane. If a
few months to a year in prison saves a young life from a lifetime of
drug use, the trade off is well worth it.

Politicians are doing nothing but squandering our money accomplishing
nothing. Considering the tragedies drugs are causing in this country,
these empty suits need to be turned out of office to enjoy the
luxurious benefits they've given themselves.

We've been sending garbage up and they've been handing garbage down.
If we don't have the collective intelligence to correct our mistakes
and start voting for the man instead of the party, we doom our nation,
our children and ourselves.
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MAP posted-by: Matt