The Arrow Mailbag

Limit supply to end drug abuse

I have been sharing with students in Junior High and High Schools for 23 years now, speaking to as many as 1/2 million students in one year about my 25 years’ experience with prison, drugs, gangs and violence.

Marijuana use among 9 to 12 year olds went up from 334,000 in 1993 to 571,000 in 1997. Marijuana use among 13 to 16 year olds  remained stable. But there was a significant increase among 17 and 18 year olds from 41% in 1996 to 48% in 1997.

It’s time for Americans to stand up and encourage our government and local law officers to push harder against drugs, crime and violence.

To kill a snake you have to cut its head off. Putting drug addicts and pushers in jail is a start but it only affects the tale of the snake.

To cut the head off, we Americans have to encourage our government to put-up a $50,000 reward for anyone that is smuggling drugs, growing marijuana, or manufacturing (PCP) or (LSD) in the United States. This puts all the focus on the main players for a change.

There is no honor among thieves and their main motivation is greed. Let’s use their greed to put them out of business. Let them turn each other in for the reward. Don’t you think that will do more damage to them than anything else we have done so far?

Why keep wasting OUR money, OUR time, OUR lives, OUR peace?

Come on America, let’s cut the head off the snake and protect our children and grandparents. Let the smugglers and Mafia and street gangs start living with fear and worry for a change.

We have “America’s Most Wanted” and “Take A Bite Out Of Crime” — how about “Mug A Thug,” “More Time For The Slime,” “Chop The Top?” Have a national contest for teens to come up with a slogan and give the top three a college scholarship.

I can only think of 150 million people or more that would help.

Ronald Rearick

born2chs@sttl.uswest.net

Drug policy editorial is on target

I received the last two issues of the Arrow, and I am impressed.  The layout is so solid that it almost makes up for the damage the Daily Inter Lake does to it when they print.  But I’m taking the time to write to you today about Jon Black’s editorial in the March 13th edition. 

Jon, that is the first intelligent and insightful editorial on the drug  problem in our society that I have read since Tim Leary voiced his opinions on psychedelics.  Indeed, the policies of the US government are not working, and it is about time that things change before the war on drugs turns into a war against the American people.  Mandatory minimums and life sentences for drug offenders are doing nothing but overcrowding our prisons and overburdening taxpayers.

Another very negative side effect is that they (the current harsh drug laws) are turning other-wise average citizens into criminals.  I’m not saying that drug users or dealers are not criminals — they are breaking the law — but in the US today a person arrested for selling one pound of marijuana will likely get a longer prison sentence than a rapist.  This is the real problem with the war on drugs.  Our lawmakers need to get priorities straight and penalties that fit the crimes.  I believe that Jon’s opinion is right on and speaks well of future generations.

Keep up the good work, Jon. 

Nathan Miller, FHS Class of 1996

brothernate@hotmail.com

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