INC NEWS - Give dealers the credit - today's Herald Sun

[Deb Christie]

Dear friends,

To me, ever-increasing sizes of illegal drug busts mean only that more and more drugs are available - it is no victory.  Indeed, no victory is possible.  We are fighting a losing war on drugs.

The only sensible solution is to treat all drugs under appropriate medical regulations, and permit committed drug users to obtain their drugs under the supervision of a physician.  Methadone clinics are one such program.  

It is no help to me to arrest drug users and dealers and put them in prison - there are simply more to come.  I want to reduce the harm to the vast majority of us who do not use drugs, and spend our precious taxes on drug treatment, not incarceration.  I also want to reduce the harm to the drug users themselves, by not making their addiction worse through incarceration (where there are no shortage of illegal drugs).

Some of our grandparents were born before our illegal drug laws (inacted around 1912), and our parents (and even many of us) were born before the terrible escalation of the war on drugs.  We can return to those good old days before drug use was demonized, and adopt a sensible drug regulation policy.

Cheers and hope to all -

Deb Christie

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ken Gasch 
  To: inc-list at durhaminc.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 11:34 AM
  Subject: INC NEWS - Give dealers the credit - today's Herald Sun



        Give dealers the credit 
       
       
        Lovemore Masakadza's Dec. 1 article, "Police step up raids and seize more drugs" did a fine job of showing the contrast between Durham present and Durham past. The quantities of confiscated drugs was a whopping five times that of last year. Well, bravo! But now, instead of pointing fingers of blame at each other, the police want to credit the community for this great gain. While the community feels it's the police who are doing an outstanding job. Masakadza did a fine job himself getting to the truth. It's the strengthening of the police/community partnership that helped post these impressive confiscation figures. Now both groups have been joined by Realtors, property managers, PAC2 and INC, city employees, and plenty of others. We're all standing and clapping, so why isn't anyone taking a bow? Since none of the partners seem willing to accept the kudos they've earned, I have an idea. Let's honor our drug dealers! Without them, none of these great partnerships would exist. We'll throw a huge party with everyone invited! Speeches will be made, and special invitations will be hand delivered. We'll gift the honorees free room and board, expensive bracelets, and even free clothing. So we all know who to applaud, we'll dress our heroes in orange jumpsuits! What fun this will be. Now, where could we hold such a large celebration? How about criminal and civil courts? The more the merrier, so pass the word! Good job, everyone. 


        BILL ANDERSON
        DURHAM
        December 6, 2005 
       


  Appeared in today's editorial page of HS.





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