Pubdate: Thu, 09 Aug 2001 Source: Daily Times, The (MD) Copyright: 2001 The Daily Times Contact: http://www.thedailytimesonline.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/116 Author: Florence Cromwell LEGALIZING DRUGS WOULD INCREASE USAGE The advocates of legalizing drugs say that it will take the profit motive away from the drug pushers of organized crime. This may be so but it isn't the point. The point is, will it create an atmosphere that will be more conducive for our young people to reject drugs? I think the very opposite would happen. It would make the procurement of drugs so easily accessible, that it would create a huge jump in the number of user. Would it be similar to the transition from the illegal lottery to the legal lottery in which millions of people who never gambled before become compulsive gamblers? What is needed are some judges with some steel in their spine who would hand down stiffer sentences for dope pushing. So reject this new ploy by these politicians who promise Utopia but give us misery and hell. Vote these festering boils on the rump of society out of office. Florence Cromwell Baltimore - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart