Pubdate: Thu, 31 May 2001
Source: Abbotsford News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2001 Hacker Press Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.abbynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1155
Author: Chuck Beyer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/gardner.htm (Losing the War on Drugs)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/spirit.htm (Spiritual or Sacramental)

PROHIBITION OF DRUGS ONLY LEADS TO DISASTER

Editor, The News:

I agree with letter writer Chris Buors ("Restore our natural right to 
use drugs," Opinion, May 26).

The fact is that whenever the state intervenes in human activity, a 
disaster results.

There is precedent in our society for the argument that any human has 
the right to use any plant on this Earth as desired.

That precedent is in the Bible, in Genesis, where all plants and 
animals are given to humans to use. Last check I could find no 
exceptions.

For example, the clause "And the Lord God sayeth that should any 
adult be using such plant for pleasure the Lord sayeth unto the state 
that you shall incarcerate that individual, take away his/her 
freedom, subject them to sexual assault in a prison and thou shalt 
saddle this person with a criminal record for life.

"Thou shalt confiscate his/her assets and take away their children 
and kill their livestock. Thou shalt build the biggest prison 
industrial complex in the world to achieve this objective.

"Thou shalt aerially spray that person's crops in order to destroy my 
creation."

This clause simply does not exist in Genesis.

The fact is that heroin and cocaine are the result of prohibition. 
Before prohibition, people did not use drugs intravenously.

They used these substances in teas, soft drinks, wines, cough syrups, 
and in the case of opium, in pipes.

So AIDS, hepatitis, rampant prostitution and all other social 
problems regarding drugs are largely the result of prohibition.

The problem of marijuana grow houses are the result of prohibition.

It is time to realize that prohibition is the end of government.

Once a prohibition is imposed, society has less control. What we need 
is regulation.

Regulation gives the security and control that society expects from 
prohibition, but will never achieve.

Of all the millions of years humans have been on this planet, we have 
had the prohibition of marijuana and opiates for only 70 years and, 
like alcohol prohibition, it has been a disaster.

Albert Einstein said that "insanity is doing the same thing over and 
over and expecting different results."

He was right.

Let's not import the most disastrous programs of the 19th century 
into the 21st.

Chuck Beyer

Victoria
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe