Pubdate: Mon, 25 Feb 2002
Source: Athens News, The (OH)
Copyright: 2002, Athens News
Contact:  http://www.athensnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1603
Author: Jim White
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/campaign.htm (ONDCP Media Campaign)

ANTI-DRUG ADS ARE A SICK ATTEMPT TO TIE POT SMOKERS TO GLOBAL TERRORISM

The "narco-terrorists" have finally hit American shores, only they were 
here all along. In fact, they turned out to be America's children. A 
teenager smoking marijuana is now a terrorist or traitor to his or her 
country, at least according to President Bush's Office of National Drug 
Control Policy and the ads that aired during the Superbowl, and were 
followed by print ads in newspapers across the country.

It is preposterous to insinuate that teenagers or anyone else who smokes 
marijuana is somehow a terrorist or traitor. The idea is based on the 
precept that drugs finance terrorist organizations, when in reality it is 
the prohibition of drugs that make the market in drugs so lucrative and 
therefore attractive to criminals and terrorists. Alcohol, a drug by any 
other name, does not fund terrorists because it is not illegal. When it was 
illegal, the proceeds funded all sorts of "terrorism" or in the vernacular 
of the time period "gangsterism."

So if you were drinking a "Bud" during the game, you were a patriot, but if 
you were smoking a "bud," you were suddenly a traitor. And if your kids or 
their friends were "helping to murder a family in Colombia," it is because 
we have allowed corrupt, ignorant and fanatical people to wage war on 
substances, behavior, minorities and the constitution.

We have allowed shysters, crooks and quacks to rob this nation of $300 
billion over the last 60 years to "eliminate drugs" and "protect the 
children," and all it has done is enrich criminals, terrorists and 
dictators in foreign lands while creating crime and violence on our own 
streets. We traded schools for prisons and teachers for police; we traded 
compassion for punishment and treatment for incarceration; we traded the 
truth for lies.

Our children may be a lot of things; they may be lonely, scared or 
confused; they may be rebellious, defiant or depressed; they may be 
spoiled, arrogant or just out to have a little fun, but they are not 
terrorists or traitors. They are not our enemy; they are our children.

What kind of people could lay blame upon the most innocent among us for the 
most hideous of crimes, and why do we let them get away with it?

Jim White

Oregon, Ohio
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MAP posted-by: Beth