Pubdate: Wed, 17 Jan 2001
Source: Farmington Daily Times (NM)
Copyright: NorthWest New Mexico Publishing Co.
Contact:  Letter to the Editor, P.O. Box 450, Farmington, NM 87499
Fax: (505) 564-4630
Website: http://www.daily-times.com/
Author: Bruce L. Salisbury

USERS 'NOT LIKE YOU AND ME'

For several months we have endured letters to the editor, which insist that 
drugs are all right and we should just legalize them and the world we live 
in will become a better place. My obvious question is, "a better place for 
who?"

Last Sunday's (Jan. 14), letters to the editor, in The Daily Times, came 
from all over the USA, most of them advocating legalization of drugs. Have 
people really thought about the consequences of making drugs legal? Would 
we really be unconcerned, if the bus driver who picks up our little 
children, could puff a legal marijuana cigarette while navigating the bus 
to the schoolhouse?

If the bus had an accident, and the firefighters and EMT rescuers arrived 
smelling of wine, and had needle marks on their arms, would we find that 
upsetting? Could we endure, police officers on drugs, stopping our kids, 
who were coming home from a date, and giving them a ticket for some offense?

When the kids went to court to have their case heard, would we feel more 
comfortable with lawyers and a judge who had just puffed a "legal" joint in 
his chambers, before coming out to render a sage legal decision? Would you 
feel safer when you fly, knowing that pilots could use those legal drugs, 
before they climbed into the cockpit?

I don't think rational people believe that legalizing drugs for private use 
is all right, any more than they believe that incest is okay, (so long as 
it happens in the privacy of the home).

This "don't ask, don't tell" trash is getting tiresome. Most people manage 
life without drugs, and those who can't cope without drugs probably should 
be in a managed care environment, where they can get their drugs - and 
their room and board - at taxpayer expense.

Please don't try to sell me on the idea that druggers and dopers and drunks 
are "just like you and me."

Bruce L. Salisbury

Aztec
- ---
MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager