From: mstaben@visual.spk.wa.us (Matt Staben)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Noriega
Date: 13 Apr 92 08:02:53 GMT
Organization: The Visual Market Public Access Site - Spokane, WA

Noriega has been convicted, branded as a drug-distributor, and named as a
household monster whom will hide under beds throughout the United States.

"If you don't be good, NORIEGA will crawl out of that crack and eat you
 and make you sniff all that dangerous stuff he moved around..."

This is what the Bush Administration seems to be trying to do.  After a 
costly trial (millions of dollars) the Bush administration breathed a
collective sigh of relief.  Had Noriega _not_ been convicted, the entire
fracas of invading Panama (an immoral, unjustified act) would have been
for naught.  

And Jesus Wept.

Was National Security under seige?  This is a question which can be 
pondered and beat to death.  More specifically, was National Security
being compromised by Noriega himself?  I don't really think so.

Our national security can be defined as the protection of our constitutional
right to freedom, and the right to the pursuit of happiness.  The War on
Drugs (which, by the way, has reached epic proportions of backscratching 
and yacht swapping) has always been a flaky approach to the drug problem.
It is _not_ reducing the flow of drugs into the country, and it _is_ costing
the taxpayers (read: you and I) billions of dollars in lost revenues and
jobs.  Quite simply, the War on Drugs is as effective as doing _nothing_
at all.  Who said it so eloquently, "Where there's a will, there's a way"?

What's the best way to approach this problem?  Do we go and a-bomb (I know,
this is extreme) the countries involved, or do we simply close our borders
to outsiders - with promises of death for those infiltrators?  I can quite
guarantee you that these methods would work in bringing down the total
influx of the pinkish snow.

Here in Spokane, Washington - where cocaine really isn't a problem _yet_,
the local law enforcement has brought on a novel means of educating 
youngsters to the perils of drug abuse.  By approaching the youth of the
younger generation with such things as specially modified police cars 
(yeah, but this one is neat... low-slung, sleek, black and fast) and even
mass-transit buses painted with the same color scheme, will enable those
"cold and forbidding" police officers to become more "in touch" with 
the kids - who have yet to be lost.  

I can't say its working - but something else must be done than trying to
dictate matters overseas (or in other countries).  It simply and 
absolutely cannot be done short of all-out war.  Too many economies depend
on our insatiable desire for an airplane ride.  Instead, we must try to
reach the younger ones who may come to realize for themselves which is
right - and stick to that principle.  

Not to leave the older generation out in the cold - we must provide means
for them (on demand) to absolve themselves of any addiction or dependency
on a substance.  

To cut it short, Noriega's conviction doesn't show anyone the "vast power
of the United States" and that they're willing to "bring to justice those
who attempt to screw with us" as the Bush administration would lead us to
believe.  We must stop attempting to play global cop and turn our eyes
inward - and at least attempt to solve the problems which face us today.
It may take some experimentation - which may or may not work -, it may
require some adjustment to our habits of living.  Simply, something must,
absolutely must, be done now before it is too late.

mstaben@visual.spk.wa.us
s
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs