LESS ONE-SIDED ON POT COVERAGE PLEASE

Editor:

Re: "Boaters to help in war on drugs", April 23.

Don't you think it's time you recognized the simple fact that drug
prohibition is nothing less than a brutal Hitler-like program designed by
government to distract our attention from more important issues (and to
provide bigger budgets and free drugs for our police officers) by ruining
the lives of the innocent few who ingest or sell certain drugs?

Don't you think it's time you saw through the propaganda put out by
government that drugs are prohibited to protect users? Users suffer more
(adulterated drugs and jail time) when a drug is banned as compared to when
it is legally available, and besides, two of our more harmful drugs,
alcohol and tobacco, are legal. My wife and I became well acquainted with
this aspect of government policy when we lost our 19-year-old son to street
heroin in 1993.

Are we better than the Nazis because our drug laws threaten an innocent
minority with jail rather then with execution? Are we better than Hitler
because we persecute an innocent minority because of the drugs they use
rather than because of the religion they follow? I think not.

If Parliament passed a law requiring the incarceration of all Jews, would
you publish an item asking readers to be on the lookout for Jews?

Alan Randell Victoria