|
As colleges and universities classes resume for the fall, we would like to welcome back the
students who visit our site. And to those of you who may be seeing our pages for the first time,
welcome to you.
Please note that the "Evidence" and "Articles" sections of FORCES Canada have been
reorganized for easier reference, and that the amount of material has grown considerably over
the summer. Happy browsing!
Some of you may be vehemently opposed to what we are defending in these pages. Fortunately
for you, someone is defending some very unpopular, supremely politically incorrect ideas that are
out of step with media, government, and a chunk of the community.
Why is this fortunate? The sad spectacle of the Tobacco Wars is an excellent example of how
an appearance of consensus can be engineered and used to wedge very ambitious public policy
changes through legislatures in a short period of time. Because of emotional appeals made to
health and "the future of our children," disagreement is readily made to appear as unthinkable
and immoral. Under these conditions, people who support free speech and a free and fair society
are particularly well served BECAUSE there is dissent.
To put it another way, be glad it is still possible to stand up for unpopular ideas, because one day
the unpopular idea -- or habit -- under attack may be your own. When and if that happens, stand
up and be counted -- because that may be the most important legacy that you leave to your
children.
Why bother with the smoking issue, you may ask? Aren't there many, much more important things
to think about and fight about?
Yes, and no. What makes the tobacco issue important is that there is more at stake than is
superficially apparent.
Let us look at just one aspect of this debate, one that is going virtually unmentioned in the
mainstream media. That is the whole question of the individual's power of decision over his or her
own body, and the role of the state in determining or limiting those choices.
It is time to broadly examine what public policies have been set up to limit the harms of what has
broadly become known as "substance abuse", and consider whether or not they have served a
liberal society well.
The question can be asked with respect to alcohol and alcohol prohibition, and the whole class
of illicit drugs including marijuana and heroine. And because there is a move to bring tobacco into
the realm of the illicit, the question must be asked with respect to tobacco.
Do we expand the values of the type of society that surely most of us still aspire to -- a free and
democratic society -- when we prohibit and criminalize -- or do we lose badly?
For those of us who are activists against tobacco prohibition either in the form of illegalization
(unlikely) or a defacto prohibition through regulation (quite likely), these are important questions.
Especially since the notorious War on Drugs has given rise to the phenomenon of what is known
in the U.S. as the "drug exception to the U.S. Constitution." Do we want to deliver one more
highly marketable "substance" into the hands of a rich, powerful, corrupting and very violent
international criminal class that pays no taxes? And which must be battled in ways that lead to
remarkable encroachments of civil liberties for ordinary people and the unnecessary
criminalization of many?
There are other issues, but this may be the most important one.
Love us or hate us, we hope our pages provide food for thought for the students who will become
tomorrow's leaders. We live in insecure times, and the temptation to create a uniform,
homogenous, efficient and politically "quiet" society will be great. We hope that champions of
social fairness AND individualism (yes, Virginia, those two ideas can be reconciled within one
mind) will be influenced by the spirit that informs these pages.
FORCES CANADA
|
