Transcript
of
Strider's Top FM Interview
Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: 22 June 2004
Source: Australia:
Transcript: Top Fm 104.1
Presenter: Jim Davidson
Jim:
Welcome back listeners just a reminder the territory
poll for the day should fireworks be banned in the Northern Territory
1800808588 you can phone in and have your say any time you like.
Jim:
Now I’m joined by Strider who is a spokesperson for the
Network Against Prohibition and I think he’s got something to say about
the
turning of the sod for the new police and fire and emergency services
station
down at Humpty Doo. Good morning Strider how are you?
Strider:
Good morning Mr Manzie I am well thankyou.
Jim:
Hey this is Mr Davidson here, this is Jim
Strider: Oh,
Mr Davidson, okay.
Jim:
Just please call me Jim, but I’m keeping the seat warn
for Darryl
Strider:
Okay.
Jim:
Now what’s the issue that you’ve got Strider?
Strider:
Well I was just saying that bringing a new police
station to Humpty Doo is all very well in its way of course but it
would be a
more welcome development if the prohibition of drugs was not a factor
you know
because basically the respect for law enforcement has been diminished
by police
involvement in this war on drugs over the years, you know and I mean, I
suppose
there are no more people in Humpty Doo that use illicit drugs than
there are in
Darwin but if it’s not a majority of the population it’s certainly a
very large
minority.
Jim:
Well Strider it’s interesting that you bring that up
this week because as you know, or as you probably know it’s Drug Action
week
from the 21st to the 25th June and we’ve had a
couple of
people on line this morning talking to us about some of the issues that
relate
to the harmful effects of particularly alcohol in this case but also
other, the
impact of drugs and other substance abuses on family life and there’s
been a
fairly strong theme flowing through that about the need to tighten and
control
access to these things. Your actually advocating quite the reverse
aren’t you?
Strider:
Well I think what I’m doing is observing the fact
that the prohibition is an evil in its self I mean in the United Stated
they
had an experiment with the prohibition of alcohol didn’t they and
amongst other
things they created a lot of criminality its generally acknowledged
amongst
people who are deeply interested in the subject that prohibition itself
is a
source of a great deal of harm and one of the things I wanted to do
yesterday
by actually approaching the police officers who were at the “sod
turning ceremony”
was draw their attention to the existence of an organisation called Law
Enforcement
Against Prohibition which is an international non-profit education
organisation
created to give a voice to current and former members of law
enforcement who
believe the war on drugs has failed and who support alternative
policies of
drug regulation and control and will save lives and reduce disease,
lower
addiction rates, lessen crime and conserve tax dollars by ending drug
prohibition
I mean when Australia was federated in 1901
there were no,
no drugs were prohibited in 1901, it’s all a development of the
twentieth
century, to talk about whether one should decriminalise or legalise
drugs is
really a bit besides the point, what we really should do is re-legalise
drugs.
There wasn’t any major problem when they were legal, the problem’s are
largely
related to the prohibition itself.
Jim:
Do you sense that you have wide community support, say
in the Humpty Doo area or in the rural area for your position on this?
Strider:
I’d say so, I think, Arthur Miller the American
playwright, he was married to Marilyn Monroe for a while he penned a
few words
once he said “few of us can easily surrender our belief that society
must
somehow make sense, the thought that the state has lost its mind and is
punishing innocent people is intolerable and so the evidence has to be
internally denied,” that’s what he said, I’d just suggest to you
there’s lost
of people who use drugs, for them it’s harder to internally deny the
evidence,
it accumulates and finally the penny drops, were is people who don’t
use drugs
can go on unaware of things, the downside of prohibition forever, so
were in a
divide and rule situation you know, and It’s most unfortunate. The
people who
are a wake-up to the absurdity of the drug prohibition are the people
who use
drugs and there’s plenty of them at Humpty Doo.
Jim:
I guess moving back to more specific things and talking
about the proposal, not the proposal but the reality of having a police
station
at Humpty Doo, the impression I get from the locals down there is that
everybodies very kean to see this happen and that they see that in any
number
of ways its going to be of benefit to the local community are you
saying that
there should be none at all, there should be no police and fire and
emergency
station down there or it its activities should be limited?
Strider:
Well I’m sure the fire station is universally
welcomed, it’s the police part of it about which no doubt some people
have some
reservations I mean the sort of promo for the police station largely
came from
shop-keepers who are being broken into on a regular basis, of course
the police
stations going to be a nine to five operation it’s probably not going
to do
much after hours for them in the short term but I mean the sort
of this
clammering for a police station has largely come from a section of the
population not the whole population
Jim:
We’ll be talking to Paul Henderson the Minister for
Police, Fire and Emergency Services later in the program and one of the
things
I’ll raise with him is the proposal to police the area after hours so
we can
pick up on what he’s got to say about that later on. Strider are there
any
other things you want to raise about things happening out at the Humpty
Doo
area?”
Strider:
No, Not really.
Jim:
Alright well thankyou very much.
Note:
Jim Davidson is the Australian Labor Party candidate for the federal
seat of Solomon, which encompasses Darwin. He was standing in for Daryl
Manzie, who normally does the show. Daryl is an ex-policeman and an ex
member of the Northern Territory parliament. At one time he was the
police minister.
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