Pubdate: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 Source: Telegram, The (CN NF) Copyright: 2010 The Telegram Contact: http://www.thetelegram.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/303 Author: Randy Lieb-Warmsworth 'WAR ON DRUGS' A WASTE OF TIME, RESOURCES That an RCMP officer would fire with his handgun at a suspected drug dealer in a store parking lot, during business hours, highlights starkly just how wrong the approach of governments to illegal drugs is. The police are permitted to engage in a "war on drugs" and they find this a lot more thrilling than dealing with complaints about a burglarized summer cabin, a barking dog, boys spraying graffiti. The police love drug cases and will say anything to keep the show going. In the 1960s, police claimed that there were hospital wards full of individuals whom the use of illegal drugs had reduced to "human vegetables." Now the police claim that marijuana is a "gateway drug" that pulls people toward the use of harder drugs which ultimately make derelicts out of the individuals. But I witnessed the use of marijuana and hashish and cocaine already in the early 1970s in Newfoundland outports and such drugs have been widely available all over Newfoundland during the almost 40 years since. No statistical evidence was ever produced which shows that more Newfoundlanders ruin their lives with illegal drugs, than those who do so with gambling (legal), and drinking (legal), or overeating (legal) or, for that matter, using far too many legal over-the-counter drugs. What is needed is honest research. Let's start by establishing just how many university professors, CBC personalities, high school teachers, senior civil servants and other community leaders have actually consumed illegal drugs in their lives. If it is found, as anecdotal evidence indicates, that the great majority of our elite have used illegal drugs at one time or another, without ruining careers and families, then let's call the police off their cowboy chases after drugs, which clearly have never reduced significantly the consumption and supply of illegal drugs in the province. Our society didn't collapse when homosexuality and abortion were legalized and it is highly unlikely that an end to the war on drugs will cause much damage to society. The current approach, which is the U.S. approach, to try to catch ever more drug dealers and jail them, is untenable in a civilized democratic nation. The Americans have now 2.3 million convicts in jail, a large part of them from drug cases. That is about the population of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and P.E.I. together. Randy Lieb-Warmsworth Ramea - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D