4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 9, 2001 Ulbe £id~ti~un ailg 420 MAYNARD STR~u. ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 daily. letters~urnich. edu On Friends, Farve and free trade DAVID HORN HORNOGRAPHY EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 GEOFFREY GAGNON Editor in Chief MICHAEL GRASS NICHOLAS WOOMER Editorial Page Editors Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion ofthe majority ofthe Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. veryone's second favorite Friend, Matthew Perry, was on the cover of a plethora of gossip magazines this week. Apparently the quick-witted Perry is in rehab, being treated for his addiction to painkillers. I'm not a big painkillers fan, myself. I am, however, a big Brett Favre fan. Green Bay Packers quarterback Favre sought treatment for his painkiller addiction after winning the Super.Bowl four years ago. I can understand why Brett got hooked on Vicodin (and other similar drugs). He gets pum- meled for 16 games by guys three times his size. That's pain and you treat it as necessary. Do it up, Brett. Matthew Perry, on the other hand, I can't quite understand. It must be rough taking in $750,000 an episode and crashing your Porsches all over L.A. But I guess when you have to act opposite Courtney Cox, you look for the easiest way to dull your senses after the show. Whatever his reasons, I don't condemn his "irresponsible" use of Vicodin. If Perry and Favre (or any one else) want to use painkillers to the point of addiction, I don't believe there to be anything wrong with that. Obviously there are more "damaging" drugs out there, and I don't believe there to be any- thing wrong with using them, either. As a mat- ter of fact, I believe they should be legalized. That's cocaine, marijuana, heroin, crack, ecsta- sy and everything else. For a time, I felt somewhat naive and unin- formed about my belief in the legalization of drugs. What helped affirm that belief for me, however, was the Oscar-nominated "Traffic," which I had the pleasure of seeing during the break. "Traffic" follows three stories all related to the practice of drug trafficking from Mexico to the States. I believe "Traffic" was an accurate portrayal of the drug trade and its message was clear and effective: the drug trade can't be stopped, and at this point, we shouldn't try. We can't do any worse in the area of drugs than we are doing now. Our country has made an expensive effort over the last 20 years to slow the trade of drugs into this country. It hasn't worked. Drug use has not fallen significantly for consecutive years in that time, either. Our prisons are over- populated, mostly by drug users and distribu- tors. The amount of money that goes into running those prisons, guarding our southern border, and policing the streets for perpetrators of victimless crimes is astronomical and can be used so much more effectively. The dangers associated with drug use and trade aren't in the actual drugs. Certainly there are dangers in the abuse of drugs like cocaine, but no more than alcohol abuse. The dangers in the drug trade are on the streets. Kids get involved with dealers who protect their product with guns. Inferior qualities of drugs exist that are laced with God knows what. These dangers would be lost by the regulation of the drug trade, but the only products the government can regulate are legal ones. Think prohibition of alcohol, circa 1920. Things got out of hand until the government stepped back in and regulated. Today alcohol use is, for the most part, responsible and safe. People tell me that, upon legalization, drug use would skyrocket, and our society would become a collection of lazy, brain-dead idiots. More so, even. But no one who wants to use drugs now isn't. Nobody is kept from shooting up or smok- ing up or popping pills because they're illegal. No one is going to, upon the day that cocaine is legalized, become an addict. Drugs are easy enough to get now -by regulating them they at least become safer, and may be distributed in* safer environments. Regulation is only half of the benefit of legalization, from the government's point of view. Taxation would be another advantage, and that money can go to treatment of and edu- cation for the prevention of addiction. Treat- ment and prevention are necessary regardless of whether drugs are legal or not, so the use of drugs may as well fund its repercussions. I'm aware of the dangers that are presented in legalization, and I'm not so naive to think that they don't exist. But as a society, we spend a lot of time, effort and money thinking of all the bad things that are caused by illegal drugs, without seriously considering the possible ben- efits in a very simple alternative. There is a sort of taboo about drugs, and the issue is not often brought up by legislators because of that taboo, that stigma attached to it. Obviously we are a long way from seeing drugs legalized, and that's fine. The important thing is that we realize that the solutions we have implemented have failed, and continue to fail. They are expensive and ineffective, and considerations of legalization ought to be taken seriously. David Horn s column runs every other Friday.Give himfeedback at http://vww.michigandailv.com/forum or via e-mail at hornd@umich.edu. 'I have been a good MSA President' To THE DAILY: Contrary to Michigan Student Assembly vice president Jim Secreto's statement that I did not do a good job as MSA president, I believe that I have been a good MSA president and that I have accomplished the majority of the cam- paign promises I made when I ran for office last year. I promised that I would work to convince professors to provide textbook info before class- es start and then post them in the LSA course guide so that students could buy the textbooks online more cheaply. Now there is textbook info for about 380 out of 1,900 undergraduate class- es online in the LSA course guide. I promised 1 would work to convince the administration to improve the weekend bus service to North Campus. Previously the bus to North campus used to run every 20 minutes, with there being daily periods during which no bus service was available. During those gaps students often had to wait upwards of 40 minutes for service. Now those gaps have been eliminated and the buses run every 20 minutes, all day, on the weekends. However, most of all, I promised to be the "People's President" and I believe I have done that, more so than any president before me. Dur- ing my"campaign I reached out to as many stu- dents as possible and, as president, I have continued to do that walking the campus to speak with students, not only to hear their con- cerns, but also to make sure that they know what MSA is doing for them. I take my position as MSA president very seriously and believe that the first priority of any MSA president must be the students on this campus. I believe that what happened at MSA's meeting this Tuesday was motivated by political reasons. I was elected by the student community to work to make things better for them. I have chosen to seek re-election because I want to continue the work which I have started. The focus of this election should be positive and aimed at student concerns. Only by doing this can we finally bring respect to MSA's election process and provide a good foundation on which to build in the year ahead. HIDEKI TSUTSUMI The letter writer is the president of the Michigan Student Assembly D D 0 b 4 , t 1 t ____-- ___. ___ ,1- Dave Matthews not like Dylan, Beatles To THE DAILY: Kurt Bruderly and John Spytek's letter ("Reviewers show 'utter stupidity,"' 3/8/01) regarding the Daily's reviews of the Dave Matthews Band's new album "Everyday" was filled with inaccuracies and gross overstate- ments. While I agree that the Daily's full page review of Matthews' new album was a com- plete waste of space and the writing was atro- cious, I feel that these two gentlemen need to straighten their heads out regarding the band. They close their letter with a comparison of Matthews' change of style from his previous albums to other well known changes of style such as Bob Dylan going electric and the Beat- les' white album. Let's be honest here folks. The Dave Matthews Band's music is far from ground- breaking, as was Dylan's and the Beatles'. Those musicians were singing about a revolu- tion, while Dave and his mates, despite Bruderly and Spytek's insistence to the contrary, write about one-night stands and pot. Matthews' music cannot be interpreted in different manners; however, it is written in plain and simple language. It's about good times, not about any sort of revolution, be it musically or socially. Second, I'm wondering if the letter's authors missed Matthews' 1998 release "Before These Crowded Streets," as they refer to "Crash" as his "last album," which it was not. What needs to be realized here is that Dave Matthews has changed his style, in regard to his music, clothing, and the atmosphere of his shows, for the worse. His music peaked around 1996 and has been sliding downhill since. The new album, which I have heard, is pure garbage. JASON SHANE LSA senior Wickerham's death 'his own stupid fault' To THE DAILY: So Josh Wickerham is smoking again, flushing three months worth of "quit" down the toilet ("Tempted by Lady Nicotine and the Marlboro Man," 3/7/01). His column paints him as a helpless victim of Big Tobacco (o* was it Lady Nicotine? Or was it the Marlboro Man?). His plaintive cry does not move me, nor does his amusing (but unoriginal) homo- - eroticism of cigarette smoking. He made the dumb decision to buy a pack of cigarettes. He made the dumb decision to smoke one and then to smoke more of them, and apparently to continue smoking. Where is his sense of per- sonal responsibility? He chooses to smoke every cigarette he smokes. Nobody's forcing him. When he dies from the results of his. dumb decision to go back to smoking, it'll be his own stupid fault and nobody else's. DANIEL STERN LSA senior- An open letter to the Central Student Judiciary VIEWPOINT We are requesting an immediate/emergency Central Student Judiciary hearing regarding the arbitrary, illegal and anti-democratic disqualifi- cation of Michigan Student Assembly Defend Affirmative Action Party slate members, presi- dential candidate Erika Dowdell, vice presiden- tial candidate Jessica Curtin, Medicine candidate Allison Mac Lennan, Business School candidate Mumammed Mian, SNRE candidate Sarah Diefenbach, and LSA candidate Arvind Grover by the MSA Election Board (See Article IV Section Cc and Article IV Section C of the Elec- tion Code). The six DAAP candidates are being threatened with exclusion from the elections for allegedly failing to attend a candidates meeting called by. the Election Board on Tuesday. The Election Board has no authority to exclude these candidates from the election for this alleged and the vast majority of DAAP candidates were in attendance at this year's meeting. They have already informed other DAAP members about the content of the meeting. Secondly, the Election Board's arbitrary actions extend far beyond the scope of the Board's authority (See Article IX of the Election Code). The Board has no authority to discipline any candidate for failure to attend an Election Board-called meeting. Third, in disqualifying DAAP candidates, the Election Board is unilaterally creating and changing the criteria for MSA candidate eligibil- ity. The Election Board is an administrative body charged with the responsibility of oversee- ing fair and democratic student elections. The Board has no authority to determine who can and cannot stand for MSA office. The Board is violating the purpose for its existence as def ned by the Election Code. Fourth. the disqualification of Dowdell, be the real champions of open, fair and demo- cratic elections at the University, MSA and its' Election Board must cease to act as politica partisans. Finally, the Election Board meeting held on Tuesday. was convened primarily to review new restrictions on election campaigning imposed by the University of Michigan Residence Hall Association. The new Residence Hall policy is regressive and self-explanatory. Candidates who received the policy can easily interpret it for themselves. They do not need the Election Board to interpret the policy for them. The Elec tion Board's time would be far better spen fighting to stop new restrictions from being imposed on student elections and democracy by the University administration. The purpose of this and future Election Boards should be to defend and fight for the fullest expression of "substantive democracy" (see the MSA Consti- tution) and student rights on this campus instead S<-->-vv-v-->----:--t-,- ...-.- .--~--r.- I-C -'-V- -<>t~ t I