Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: "OUR RIGHT TO DRUGS"  A l
From: [carl berger] at [synapse.org] (Carl Berger)
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 94 23:43:00 -0500

MS>                            "OUR RIGHT TO DRUGS"

MS>            All proceeds to benefit CITIZENS AGAINST PROHIBITION,
MS>               a political action committee pledged to support
MS>          candidates for public office who oppose the war on drugs.
MS>       384 Ellicott Square Building, Buffalo, NY 14203  (716) 854-1440
MS>                         Martin E. Mutka, Treasurer

     If you can use this arguement/conversation of any use please us it.

FO>Kathleen Brown, the Democrat most likely to receive her party's
gubernatorial
FO>nomination in California, continues to define herself as particularly
FO>tough on drug offenders.  Last month, she supported Attorney General Dan
FO>Lungren's call for government seizure and liquidation of a drug dealer's
FO>property *prior* to convict conviction.  Brown voiced approval because
FO>other reasons, the property seizure is an important source of revenue for
FO>local law enforcement agencies.

     Every time I hear "government seizure and liquidation of" and "important
source of revenue for" I cannot help but have flashbacks (pun intended) of the
film "The Burning Times" by the National Film Board of Canada.  The film is a
documentary of the witch burnings that occurred during the middle ages.  The
film does a great job of documenting how the witch burnings transformed from a
attack of one religion on another (Christian against Pagan) to a means of
raising money for a few powerful city/town leaders by using the paranoia
created by the "witches in our midst mentality. (-drug users in our midst-)"

     There is a section in the film that details just how expensive the "War"
against the witches was to maintain and continue and how the accused property
was seized and sold off to support the trials.  After all there was the
salaries of the people that arrested the accused, the people who held the
trials, the people that tortured the witches the people that burned the
witches, and of course the local person in charge of the entire affair.  The
economies of cities/towns became dependent on the witches and the money that
could be made from the sale of their wares (-actual guilt was meaningless-).

     During this time entire villages (-substitute a race or community in the
inner city of your choice-) were tortured/burned alive (-criminal record = no
job in most cases-), sacrificed all for the cause of cleansing the country of
the devil (witches).  The number of people accused and executed climbed into
the millions (-how many people are in prison right now under mandatory
sentencing in the US-).

     Watch the film and every time you hear the word Pagan, substitute it with
drug user and see if you draw the same parallel I have.

FO>In the April 18 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, she managed to
FO>place herself to the right of Republican Governor Pete Wilson.  The
FO>Chronicle is running a series on voter questions.  The paper poses a
FO>voter's question to each of the gubernatorial candidates and then prints
FO>the answer.  One of today's questions was:  "What, if any, alternative
FO>sentencing arrangements fo you favor for non-violent offenders?"

FO>One of Brown's proposed sentencing changes is alarming:  "Implement a
FO>sentencing policy that guarantees that all drug offenders serve time,
FO>even for the *first offense*."

     The slightest accusation of being a witch was a death sentence.

FO>Brown leads her closest challenger, insurance commisioner John Garamendi,
FO>by 10-15 points in the latest polls.  It's enough to make me vote
libertarian.

 * SLMR 2.1a * A nudist wedding makes the best man easy to identify.