The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 83, No. 23, Ed. 1 Friday, March 22, 1996 Page: 4 of 16
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THE RICE THRESHER
Opinion
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I WOULD like to thank Jean
Claude Pe Brernaeeker for his call
for a campus wide debate on the
national policy on drugs ("Cur-
renl nation
ill policy on
dru^s deserves
cainpuswidedis-
c u s s i o n ,
1'hrcsher, March
!.' )
l.el iiic .idd
11iv voice to his
in challenging
the Kice Pro-
gram Council
through its Is-
sntsand In tolled Committee to host
a debate on the topic of drug de-
ci uninalization.
As I ><* Brernaeeker points out,
tin university now has the nation's
tanner drug czar, Lee P. Brown, on
its faculty.
As a prelude to the debate. 1 will
brielh present another side to the
arguments I )e I?reinaccker made in
III1- letter
GKORC.E
JlATOl IN
NEWS EDITOR
a
Decriminalising drugs would
only lead to an increase in drug use.
a likely increase in crime and long-
term social problems.
The correlation between crime
and drug use is difficult to under
stand
On the one hand, it is i;lear that a
lot of crime is generated by (lie salt1
of drugs. .
I ^criminalization proponents
suggest that the crime rate would be
cut if drugs were legalized.
This assumes that the black mar
ket in illicit drugs.would go away •
This is n<Tt necessarily true: If, for
example, drug sales lo persons un-
der 21 were illegal or only certain
drugs were decriminalized and not
others, a black market would still
exist. ^
However, even assuming that the
black market in drug sales could be
eliminated by legal drug merchants
in your community's shopping cen-
ter, crime syndicates, thugs and
thieves will not just disappear like
j.;ou<l chocolate cake
Just like lifting the prohibition on
alcohol did not end organized crime,
there is no reason to think that a
permanent fix to the crime problem
will result from drug decriminaliza-
tion.
Cheaper drugs
resulting frqm
decriminalization will
result in
more addicts. ...
Syndicates will simply concen
trate an something else they can
make a buck off — perhaps selling
machine guns, stolen cars or even
nuclear weapons.
Likewise, an underclass of drug
addicts will persist.
Cheaper drugs resulting from
decriminalization will result in
more addicts and more serious ad-
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dictions.
The addictions will still have to
be supported, probably by criminal
assr
ship between drug use
activity. 28 percent of violent
ers (according to the Drug and L
Data Center and Clearinghouse)
reported that they had used drugs at
the time of their offense.
This alarming statistic leads me
to wonder whether such a relation-
ship might exist.
However,- in my fftind, the most
compelling argument against de-
criminalization is that, as a society,
we have the right and duty to protect
the weaker members of society from
themselves.
Through the laws of the land, we
establish and reinforce the baseline
morality of our society.
Clearly, drug use is bad for our
society: Whether or not we tell
people that drug use is bad, if we do
not buttress that position with the
Self-glorifying photos
To the editor: .,
Hie journalistic standards of your
publication never cease to enrage
me.
1 thought that the photo featured
on the front page of the issue pre-
ceding spring break ("Iskander wins
decisive re-election victory,"
Thresher, March 1) might have been
an oversight.
This newspaper
allows its staff
members more
pomp than they
warrant. Consider a
check on the amount
of personality that
you publish.
Certainly you would not have
condoned running a picture of the
news editor himself on the'front
page of his own section, in which
he counts ballots for an election
in which he himself was overtly ac-
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moral authority of the law, we will
lose the war on drugs in a more
way than we are losing now.
g been said, 1 think
nber of problems with
's current strategy in pun
offenders.
-4s a society, we have
the right and duty to
protect the weaker
members of society
from themselves.
De Brernaeeker may be right that
prison is not always the best way to
rehabilitate drug addicts.
At the least, that point is also
worthy of discussion.
Let the debate begin.
George Hatoun is a news editor and a
Sid Richardson College junior
-
4 •
. 'mm
1
tive.
At the price of poor judgment, I
hope this man's ego is now suffi-
ciently rectified.
j. The folly continued in that issue
with Tony Trans asinine remarks
on Cancun — "We're talking white
beaches, authentic Mexican food
and college women! Cancun all the
way, baby.'!!" ("Head to Head,"
Thresher, March 1).
I find it hard to believe that stu-
dents at RiceJearn anything at all, if
Iran's views are representative of
the way they think.
And finally, you should have
bridled your idolatry of Packy
Saunders in last week's issue.
Two pictures of him on consecu-
tive pages plus that cute Smoothie
endorsement is excessive, even for
this funnyman.
Hi is newspaper allows its staff
members more pomp than they
warrant. Consider a check on the
amount of personality that you pub-
lish.
And to those who hope to seem
larger than life, please try to be
smarter than it as well.
Haley S. Robertson
Jones '96
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Klein, Charles & Rao, Vivek. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 83, No. 23, Ed. 1 Friday, March 22, 1996, newspaper, March 22, 1996; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246536/m1/4/: accessed June 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.