re: "Weed use a 'medical minefield'" (BP, August 8)
Dear editor,
If countries like Canada and the US are not intimidated by threats from the wrong-headed International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) that is stuck in the hysteria-driven mistakes of the more ignorant past of the vicious drug war hey days, why should Thailand be terrified of its threats to punish good citizens who need other medicines? The whole idea of punishing another group for the perceived crimes of others is morally indefensible, however popular it might be in the sanctions imposed by US presidents intent on forcing others to bow to their populist will.
Perhaps it is time Thailand withdrew from the 1971 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. If a treaty entered into in good faith is later learned to be in fact based on false beliefs now known to be contradicted by the facts, by reason and by good morals, only a bad fool would continue to be a part of it to the detriment of his own nation's citizens. It has long been proved beyond reasonable doubt that wars on drugs not only fail, but that they enable mafia gangs, encourage corruption of law enforcement officials, waste vast police resources, worsen national health outcomes and uselessly imprison sons and daughters at horrific financial and social costs to families and to society.
In view of the fact that most illegal drugs are far less harmful to society than alcohol, nations are increasingly moving to respect the rights of their adult citizens to decide for themselves how best to live their lives. To refuse them the right to such self determination, even when we believe it to be personally foolish, is, after all, to treat people as the slave property of the state, and slavery is now know to be a moral abomination.
Felix Qui
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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.
The text as edited was published in PostBag on August 8, 2019, under the title "Foolish drug war" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1727843/foolish-drug-war
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