Try a lot more self esteem and a lot less bull

Vancouver's mayor Sam Sullivan met with the dinosaurs of the drug movement today as they made their case for a bigger chunk of the drug war pie.In a move that would virtually duplicate the recent campaign by the Harper Conservatives,they want to lecture youth as young as seven years old on the perils of drug use.These people are hard line abstinence proponents and think all drugs belong in the same book.They are the left over just say no crowd that want a drug free world and actually think they can make one happen.It's like the sixties never happened.There was no Viet Nam and Happy Days was a true story.Drugs are for the negroes and jazz musicians and have no place in a white bread world.If I sound a tad bitter it's because it's people like these that are maintaining the ridiculous drug laws that are destroying society as we know it.I have no beef with their desire to give children a sense of self and some self confidence.It's just that there are a lot of kids that have really horrible lives.This province has the worst child poverty in Canada and these people want more money for a drug awareness program that is based on a myth.There are better ways to spend our money and drug education should be fact based and not a diatribe of prohibitionist non-sense.I too think it's vital to give our youth the information necessary to allow them to make informed decisions on their drug use or lack of it.To use campaigns that lump marijuana in with heroin and speed is the kind of programs that have given youth the false impression that marijuana is addictive and no worse than heroin.That might be alright in an abstinence world but it makes no sense in the real one.These are well meaning people.I have heard them speak and I know they feel passionate.It's too bad that they're so ill informed and misguided.They have been the benefactors of years of funding for a failed abstinence philosophy and are fighting for what they see as their share of the drug war pie.They do so much harm and have no clue that they're doing it.The days when you could tell some scary stories and show some frightening movies are gone.If you want to make a difference you have to tell the truth now.Everything is at their finger tips.The drug war is a lost and flawed cause.Giving money to groups like these is like flushing money down the toilet.

More drug war non-sense

I've been reading up on recent media stories that relate to drug war politics and there's one thing that's very clear.Every article that makes a stand in favor of the drug war mentions harm and anarchy and blames drugs for it all.They never make any points as to just how the drugs are wreaking all this havoc.There's no question that drug abuse is a major problem and that there's currently no measures that are having a positive effect on the drug sub-culture.Just saying drugs are bad is not doing a hell of a lot of good.The drug laws currently in place were legislated near the turn of the last century and have absolutely no basis in science or logic.Most drug users do so for the respite that others find in alcohol.Like alcohol,some take the use too far.Yet the government sells alcohol and reaps the profit with very little concern for those that cannot handle their drink.Drug war advocates always say that this is why the legalization of drugs is so wrong.That alcohol does enough damage and we don't need any more intoxicants legalized in our society.Fine if you like to drink.That these people can claim to be taking the high road is just ridiculous.I've got mine so f'you.I can drink but if you choose to smoke pot you go to jail.Never a word about the reason.That's because there is no valid reason.Richard Nixon,The man that declared war on drugs.Did so against the report of his own hand picked panel of drug hardliners who told him that pot was fairly benign and should probably be legalized.Nixon had a hissy fit and went on his own"good judgment?",and declared the drug war.No-one can say why he chose this reasoning but we can say that it was against all best advice from the experts and from his own people.This was the sixties and there was still thought to be a link between pot and heroin.Heroin was taking a terrible toll on US troops in Viet Nam so there may actually have been some misguided logic in his stance.We now know,however that heroin and marijuana have no relationship other than that heroin addicts often smoked pot at some point in their lives.They also drank liquor and smoked cigarettes so there's absolutely no other connection.This is no longer in dispute but it is still often used as a reason for the law against pot.All the reasons given for the banning of marijuana have been dispelled one after another.Yet the law persists as politicians find it easier to be a drug hardliner than to do the actual research that dispells the myths.People like the current contenders for the democratic and republican nominations are either former drug users(democrats)or anti drug hardliners like John McCain who was in Viet Nam and was one of the hard drinking soldiers that were so opposed to their pot smoking fellow marines.This was demonstrated in the movie Apocalypse Now.It was just a movie but ask anyone that served in the Nam and they'll attest to the split.That split has carried on right through to today and it's hypocrites like the current democratic contenders who will speak loud and long about the danger of drugs.They did drugs and they are now running for president.I guess they must be made of sterner stuff than the rest of us.McCain is at least a dinosaur that has outlived his generation.It's clear what he stands for and what he believes.The democratic candidates,at least to this point in time,are hypocrites that speak out of both sides of their mouths at the same time.They probably relax with a bong hit after every anti-drug speach.That's drug war politics.

Life In Juvenile Detention

That's what the B.C. government health minister was telling reporters on Friday.George Abbott was speaking of his governments reopening of the antiquated Willingdon Youth Detention Center in Burnaby. The building and grounds are to be used to house the victims of the "new" drug court that's being set up in Burnaby and scheduled to open this summer. The court will "offer a 'choice'" to anyone appearing before it,between jail and treatment.If there was treatment that had a statistical chance in hell of helping even a significant number of these chronic offenders(read drug addicts)there'd be nothing to talk about.Abbott is contending that the facility will be used solely for the housing of people with dual diagnosis,meaning drug and mental problems.I don't trust Mr.Abbott or his government.Retrofitting an old prison with 100 beds and suggesting that there's a very real possibility that some will be there for life is unconscionable but not a stretch for this government.The drug courts were tried in the 70's and so was the idea of locking up addicts for being addicts and keeping them in prison till they were cured or dead. Drug treatment should be available on demand and should be for as long as is necessary to attain it's objectives.Forced treatment is not has not been and never will be successful in treating addictions.This idea has been tried all over the world and has never been successful in a statistically prove-able form anywhere.Every time significant results have been claimed,they've been shown to be either in confined circumstances or just not true.I'm sure it's possible to keep an addict in custody forever and have them remain clean but there's no quality of life in prison.People that want treatment should have a place where they can go and stay for as long as it takes.Opening places like Willingdon and pretending we're doing these people a service is worse than doing nothing.It takes money away from projects and policies that might just have a chance of really working.We will never jail our way out of the drug problem.Things like this only fool the public into thinking something constructive is being done which couldn't be further from the truth.