ENFORCEMENT NOT THE ONLY STRATEGY

Sir,

Re Editorial disappointing: RCMP, Oct. 27

Small wonder Barry Schneider, the RCMP's Drug Co-ordinator for
Central/North Vancouver Island protests so vigorously your editorial
putting forward the position that arresting people for what they choose to
ingest is a grievous attack on individual liberty and a failing strategy
besides. If drugs were legalized, Schneider would have to get a real police
job protecting the public rather than wasting his time, and ours, trying to
justify our shameful and oppressive drug laws.

Mr. Schneider states that enforcement is only one strategy in an
effective multi-faceted approach to drugs. I totally disagree. It is only
when we legalize drugs and remove enforcement from the picture altogether
that the other approaches of prevention, education etc stand a chance of
being successful.

Of course we must punish those who harm others while under the influence of
drugs, but that does not mean that we must punish everyone who ingests
drugs. Whether or not an individual is under the influence of a drug, if no
one else is directly harmed, he or she has the right to be left alone.

Alan Randell