It's disheartening to learn that Northern Rivers police have decided to approach illegal drug consumption with the use of marijuana-sniffing dogs. The practice should certainly offend anyone who believes in the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

In the United States we have sacrificed countless liberties in the name of the war on drugs, which is really a war on drug users. We have sacrificed the right to have police knock before breaking down the doors of our homes. We have sacrificed privacy and the presumption of innocence by allowing employers and schools to randomly drug test (which usually entails peeing in a cup in the presence of a stranger and has frequently been a front for illegal pregnancy and AIDS tests). We have sacrificed the futures of hundreds of thousands of people, especially young African American and Latinos, with lengthy prison sentences for possession of marijuana (often longer than those convicted of rape, murder or kidnapping).

We have also taken away these citizens' voting rights through "felony disenfranchisement" laws. We have allowed for the creation of a unstoppable money machine with laws like "civil forfeiture" under which police can confiscate any money or property belonging to a suspect that can be "reasonably" linked to the drug crime with which they're charged. When the laws were first passed, the forfeited goods were directed to schools. Bit by bit, the money has been redirected to police agencies themselves, thus providing added incentive to make arrests and providing an opportunity to drive around in cool cars with "this car confiscated through drug interdiction" on the side.

We have tolerated the hypocrisy of the widespread acceptance of alcohol (which, between domestic violence, drink driving, and liver cancer causes far more damage than marijuana), and the hypocrisy of the encouraged use of prescription drugs like Ritalin, Prozac and Valium.

These are just a few examples of what the war on drugs has meant in the USA; I could go on and on.

Criminal prohibition of drugs has failed miserably in my country.

Since 1981, $150 billion in tax dollars has been spent trying to prevent Columbian cocaine, Burmese heroin and Jamaican marijuana from penetrating our borders. Yet the evidence is that for every ton seized, hundreds more get through. Hundreds of thousands of otherwise law-abiding people have been arrested and jailed for drug possession. Between 1968 and 1992, the annual number of drug-related arrests increased from 200,000 to over 1.2 million. One-third were for marijuana, mostly for possession.

Instead of employing a strategy of prevention, research, education and social programs designed to address problems such as permanent poverty, long-term unemployment and deteriorating living conditions in our inner cities, we have employed a strategy of law enforcement.

While this military approach continues to devour billions of tax dollars and sends tens of thousands of people to prison, illegal drug trafficking thrives, violence escalates and drug abuse continues to debilitate lives.

Not only is prohibition a proven failure as a drug control strategy, but it subjects otherwise law-abiding citizens to arrest, prosecution and imprisonment for what they do in private.

In trying to enforce the drug laws, our government violates the fundamental rights of privacy and personal autonomy guaranteed by our Constitution. Unless they do harm to others, people should not be punished - even if they do harm to themselves. There are better ways to control drug use, ways that will ultimately lead to a healthier, freer and less crime-ridden society.

The USA and Australia have different cultures and social problems, but the dynamics of drug issues are more similar than different.

Drugs are here to stay and no amount of hippy harassment or doggy drug searches will change that.

I have visited Nimbin; it is a special place. Why threaten otherwise harmless drug user's lives with police interdiction? What is gained?

Take a lesson from the US, any community that wants to effectively address drug use must approach the issue as a public health problem, not a criminal justice problem.

Deborah Jacobs
Executive Director
American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey

Leaky backbenchers

Shane Stone could not have been more accurate with his stinging and possibly accurate critique of the Federal Liberal Party.

He must have known that Ian Causley was going to comment on the recent decision by Centrelink to offer financial assistance to those Lismore businesses that were adversely affected by the recent flooding.

Normally Lismore's businesses take this kind of thing on the chin. Having had to endure the costly administrative nightmare caused by the GST, followed by the "soaking up" of so much discretionary expenditure by the Olympics and then cope with the subsequent slowdown, it was pleasing to receive notification of this Small Business Flood Assistance Package.

This grant, up to a maximum of $10,000 would allow small businesses to replace damage floor coverings or shop fixtures. It would not be used to make up for "mythical" lost business, as it is usual practice for these consumers to come back once the flood had receded.

Mr Causley's statement on ABC radio that "he seriously doubted that 2000 businesses should be allowed to claim $10,000, making this a $20 million" is absolutely absurd.

If he knew anything about the people he is supposed to represent, he would have known that as few as 150 businesses were flood affected.

It really does look like Shane Stone's comments apply to backbenchers as well as the leadership of the Liberal Party.

Talk about tricky, mean spirited and out of touch with their constituents.

You can move to the top of the class Mr Causley.

Bill Sheaffe
Lismore

Ratepayer concerns

As a ratepayer I am most concerned at where our Council is leading us.

Over the last couple of months, I have listened and read our Mayor's statements as he tries to justify to residents and ratepayers the spending on the i) Flood Levee, and ii) Memorial Baths project.

The Mayor and his councillors seem to totally disregard advice by senior council staff, they have gone away from normal business practices, that is to get all the facts and details before making your final decision.

Lets look at the Flood Levee project:

i) they think it will cost between $12 and 15 million.

ii) they don't know how much the State and Federal Governments will put into the project.

iii) they don't know how much the NSW Government will allow Council to increase rates as a levy.

iv) most importantly due to not knowing the answer to the first three: how the devil do they know the final cost and how they are going to pay for it (think of a number?)

One ratepayer who lives in Lismore stated that we have the only Council in Australia, where he will have to pay an increase in rates to have another foot of water through his house.

Now the Memorial Baths redevelopment:

Why is the Council so hell bent on getting this project started?

Is it because they feel that some of them will not be around after the next Council election? I believe they must be up for approximately $500,000 by now, to buy and develop the RSL land, and to this add $250,000 to pay for new plans to be drawn up etc.

Then Council is up for $750,000, without even a sod of earth being turned. You can forget the cost of Council staff for the amount of time they have spent on this project up to now as those will be hidden in Council figures. (Then it could be $5 million)

I believe we have a duty to help the CBD, but this should not be at the expense of the majority of residents in our fair city. There must be a balance so residents can expect to receive from Council the services which we have come to expect from the previous Council, and not this fighting which is going on at the present.

I therefore beg the Mayor and his councillors to reconsider their decision and at least lets tackle one problem at a time and ask them to consider that as we are the 7th highest paying ratepayers out of the 143 councils in NSW. Lets try to go down the ladder and not end up No.1 in NSW.

R Mackey
Goonellabah

Rats or Nats

With the forthcoming elections voters will have a decision on loyalties and cultures.

I note that on May Day the Labor supporters marched with their heads high and their Communist flags flying.

The previous week saw the National Party faithful march on Anzac Day, also with their heads held high and with Australian flags.

The voters will decide which system is best for Australia.

Let us hope so.

Bob English
Rous

Dingo defence

The persons most responsible for the little boy tragically losing his life from a dingo attack on Fraser Island are his irresponsible parents, and stupid tourists.

There are great big signs telling people not to leave their children unattended because of native wild dingoes live there. It is their home you are entering.

Instead of telling everyone during his media interview that his son was now safe and well and being cuddled by Jesus, he should have been telling listeners how stupid it is not to heed the signpost warnings.

Now of course the typical knee-jerk reaction is already under way. Scores of innocent dingoes are now also being cuddled by Jesus, albeit full of bullet holes. We've gone back to the Azaria Chamberlain mania.

Surely these animals shouldn't be slaughtered. Their gene is practically 100 percent pure. Once they're gone it's final.

People get killed by hippos in their native habitat, but they're not senselessly slaughtered, nor lions, crocs or bloody huge elephants. People in the Arctic have learnt to co-habit with the extremely dangerous scavengers, namely the polar bear.

It seems incredible that large dangerous animals can be located or managed, but Beattie and his cowboys can't even handle a few small dogs; and that's in tropical paradise let alone the frozen arctic.

Last of all, everyone who has fed a dingo on Fraser Island knowing full well that they shouldn't, has now contributed to the death and tragedy that has unfolded. A very sad loss, both human and animal but quite unnecessary.

This letter may be considered callous, but is what you might call The Awful Truth.

Frosty Grego
Evans Head

Irony man

Dear Tim Somerville (Echo, May 3).

I once used to suffer from severe over-bite too but my dentist showed me how to overcome it. He advised me to keep my tongue in my cheek as much as possible.

Graham Askey

South Lismore

Doug's reply

I would like to comment on two letters in The Echo (May 3).

Firstly, in brief, to the sentiments of Jo Rush, who says that she wore clothing of some kind that carried messages, including a sign that read "No Wars" at and in our Anzac Day march.

What does this person think we are marching for? We are honouring our comrades who fought and died for our right to live in peace.

Why would anyone want to notice and acknowledge your presence at such a solemn occasion? Wake up JO

To my other reason for writing is to JP Baker, again, who seems to only read part of my letters. In the spirit of a former US President, "Read Mah Words"

In The Echo (Apr 19) I wrote, "I have lived in the Page electorate for only a few years" and therefore I do not know what goes on in Richmond. I can understand why part of my letter was misunderstood, there was a full-stop after the word "that" which was not intended by me.

My actual words were, after a comma, "But he has no right to say that I should know what is going on in Richmond" Mr Baker in his first letter (APR 12) wrote that I "would or should know"

For the third and last time, Jenny McAllister is a local. Six years away does not cancel ones roots.

I have not lived in my hometown in Queensland where I went to school, since 1942, but if I was famous, I am sure the town would claim me as a local lad. Now please, JP Baker - finish, enough.

Doug Myler
Lismore Heights

Backbench dream

Could someone please wake Mr Ian Causely up, gently, and offer him some medication. His statement (Echo, May 3), is a beat up and another way to try and brainwash the public, including pensioners who have been ripped off by the GST and other cut backs to their income, pharmacy benefits, the elderly have suffered.

"Logistics would fill the page." We, I would remind you are peeping through the keyhole and listening at the lock, and what we see and hear is not good for the 'Nuts' and 'Libs' who try continually to con us, the Taxpayer.

We hope you can open your eyes long enough to digest this, Mr Causley. Now you can retire back to Fairyland. Sweet dreams.

Jim Harvie
Goonellabah

More than war

War is over! That is really what a lot of people want to believe. To achieve that, a lot of honesty and evaluation of the human condition with all its different religions needs to be done.

The First World War was supposed to be the war to end all wars. It didn't end all wars as the aftermath was war-like. The victors punished Germany severely, leaving the country in such an emotional and physical mess that it was ripe for a dictator like Hitler. Punishment is also an act of war and it was pointless. The First World War developed from an ego and territorial clash between colonial superpowers.

I wish no disrespect towards war veterans, but I also have been questioning the mystical qualities being ascribed to Gallipoli and the origin of the ANZAC. I also read veterans commenting that they were not heroes but just men doing what they were told to do.

When the last veteran has died we will be too free to embellish with all sorts of mythology of war being a great thing? The two World Wars were destructive enough on the environment and the humans involved. Look at Vietnam and the chemical aftermath on both the Vietnamese, the soldiers, and the countryside.

What do you think the aftermath of a large scale war now? You only have to read any number of articles on areas of the world where nuclear testing the environments and the people health for generations.

Now is the time to stop glorifying war. The very aspects of the Australian character so exemplified by the ANZACs are being steadily rubbed out by our overly bureaucratic government and excessive urbanisation. A government that spends thousands or millions on expensive pilgrimages to sites of past wars has been known to be extremely negligent and mean to the veterans of war. Medals do not replace pensions or medical costs borne by returned soldiers.

Funding of wars was the origin of taxation and national debt for a lot of countries. Do we really want to fund war machines and technology at the expense of health, education and cultural life?

War, hatred and greed are all part of the potential human condition. Out of such vile, murky depths true heroism shines out.

Surely we can create another reality in this international, technological, scientific and analytical age where heroism exists without the vile backdrop.

Lynne Oldfield
Barkers Vale

Not my water

A lady of my close acquaintance today had occasion to report a water leak on a Lismore street.

The Rous Water edifice in Molesworth Street seemed to be a place likely to house some official who would take some interest in such a water leak.

On inquiring at the desk of the said edifice the lady was politely told that Rous Water is only the wholesaler of water to Lismore City Council and was told to contact them.

Commonsense would lead me to expect that the Rous employee only needed to forthwith telephone Lismore Council and pass on he advice of the leak.

Too Easy. Well done Rous Water

PA Moller
Lismore

McVeigh death

Who's the biggest loony?

It has been reported that, before leaving office, Janet Reno ensured that there would be no post-mortem on Timothy McVeigh. So there is no possibility that minute examination of his brain and body after death, and extensive interrogation by every known means beforehand, which might have revealed whether he was programmed, and the identity of his associates who are still undoubtedly out there, but will not obligingly come forward and put their heads on the block as McVeigh did.

The shot-in-the-arm that will be a stopper for Timothy will be a bolter for Conspiracy Theorists. Timothy has said that, for his last words, he will recite from the 1875 poem "Invictus" by William Heneley, a poem to which people attributed the most opposite meanings, but which became a mantra for Anarchists and Satanists as a proclamation of defiance of all, even divine authority, and sometimes recited by the most unlikely people on their deathbeds.

As a cult, it spiralled over into the 20th Century, and now the 21st. Its choice dispels completely, the claim that McVeigh acted alone.

Eddie Burns
Nimbin

Slow learners

Some people suggest that the reasons why Lismore City Council is bogged down with problems in regard to the construction of a new Aquatic and Leisure Centre are because of the conflicting interests of the incumbent Councillors.

Some say Cr Swintek will never give up on getting the facility built in Goonellabah. Some say Cr Irwin will never give up on the idea of doing a joint project with Southern Cross University. Some say that Cr Gates wants the new facility on The Memorial Baths site to help out the financial problems of the RSL. Some say Cr Tomlinson represents people out of Lismore town who don't even want a pool because they wouldn't use it.

Maybe more sinister though not separate forces are at work as well. Maybe there are tricksters afoot seeking to thwart progress and cause financial difficulties in our Council so that Regional Development Minister Harry (in the dark) Woods can argue more fiercely for council amalgamations. Maybe it's all about political party politics and the next federal elections.

Ah, but we are a docile compliant community who still haven't caught on that power even in local government has a tendency to corrupt and create two faced hypocrites.

Anyway, we're supposed be celebrating. We have just broken a record. The largest heroin injection rooms in the world are now open in the top tourist attraction of Kings Cross Sydney.

Mums the word but we are slow learners.

Kathryn Pollard O'Hara
Lismore

Land of rising sea

The CSIRO prediction of a 90cm rise in sea levels for the NSW coast in the next 100 years is cause for concern. So much of our coastal development is on reclaimed wetlands and swamps and low-lying areas near the beach. There must be a consequence for such development.

No doubt many will say 'it's not my problem as I'll be dead in 100 years'.

However, the sea will not rise 90cm in 100 years time. It is happening now and the 'I'll be dead' mob may be affected in the near future. George W. Bush's recent decision to abandon the Kyoto agreement, and its flow-on effects on greenhouse gases, will not help the problem go away.

So what are our planners doing? Are they taking into consideration the fact that many new subdivisions are in 'risky' areas? Are they reviewing the effects of a rising sea on existing developments. Not on your Nellie. If you look at most planning documents, there's no mention of the effects of global warming, and certainly no modeling of how a rise in sea level will affect local communities. There's precious little attention to the precautionary principle, a major plank of NSW Coastal Council Policy.

There is some urgency in getting this modeling done as big time developments are in the pipeline all along the northern NSW coast. Lest you think I'm alarmist you might like to consider the fact there are already problems such as coastal erosion adjacent to houses, and street flooding during king tides in at least one coastal town.

It's time for the Minister for Closing Councils and Regional Demolition, Harry Woods, to commission and coordinate appropriate study of the problem. That may be a more effective use of his time than forcing inappropriate, ineffective and 'pie-in-the-sky' amalgamations on ratepayers who don't want it.

Dr Richard Gates
Evans Head

Merchant seamen

As there are several ex-servicemen living in this area who served with the US Army Small Ships in World War II. I would like it known that at long last they are being honoured and remembered by the unveiling of a plaque.

I passed on all the names that Bill Lunney and I mentioned in our book, "Forgotten Fleet", to those down south who have organised it all. After 58 odd years some men were hard to track down - some had died. However the invitation to the unveiling reads:

'Mr Richard L Greene, US Consul general, Sydney and Colonel Michael J Baier, US Army Attache to Australia, together with Mr Heinz Javier Colby, Manager of the Grace Hotel have pleasure in inviting... to the Official Unveiling of a Plaque commemorating the Occupancy by the United States Army in the Grace Building from May 1942 to January 1947, and also the enlistment of over 3000 Australian men and boys in the United States Army Small Ships. the unveiling will be held in the Grace Hotel, 77 York Street, Sydney, on Tuesday, May 15, 2001, at 10.30am for 11am.'

So, there you have it fellows where-ever you may be, at long last we are being recognised.

These men and boys ranged from 14 years of age to men approaching their late 70s. Some men were one armed, one leg and other ailments, rejected by the other armed services. We even boasted a VC winner from World War I, George Julian Howell, and believe it or not an ex-German U-boat Commander from the Great War.

Although most of us were merchant seamen, there were others with no sea experience at all, farmers, cane cutters, railway engine drivers, etc

Our vessels were just as unique, paddle steamers, tugs, schooners, ferryboats - anything that floated were put into service in the early war years in New Guinea. A high ranking officer summed it up correctly. He said when small ship vessels took troops into Bunam - "War All Gone Crazy".

On a closing note it is also pleasing to add that Anzac Day 2001 the Murwillumbah RSL unveiled a Merchant Navy Plaque on a commemoration wall along with plaques of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Frank B Finch
Kyogle