Pubdate: Fri, 24 Aug 2001
Source: Bluefield Daily Telegraph (WV)
Copyright: 2001 Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Contact:  http://www.bdtonline.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1483
Author: Redford Givens
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1536/a09.html

LEGALIZATION WOULD END WIDESPREAD DRUG ABUSE

The Bluefield Daily Telegraph's inane editorial about OxyContin abuse 
neglected to point out that no one would be robbing and murdering to get 
drugs if they were legal. Drug prohibition is the thing "fueling crime" in 
West Virginia and the rest of the United States.

All of our "drug crime" is the direct result of an insane drug prohibition 
policy that has never done anything but cause crime, death and disease.

In the days before drug prohibition when addicts could buy all of the 
heroin, cocaine, morphine, opium and anything else they wanted cheaply and 
legally at the corner pharmacy America had nothing remotely resembling a 
"drug problem" even though there were hundreds of thousands of opiate 
addicts in the country.

One can fairly say that all of our current "drug problems" are the direct 
consequences of a lunatic prohibition policy that has never worked for 
anything, anywhere, anytime.

Instead of trying to accomplish the impossible (stopping drug use), we 
should repeal our drug laws and regulate drugs for adult use. Regulation 
works for alcohol distribution and regulation will work for drugs. 
Prohibition, on the other hand, has never worked for anything, anywhere, 
anytime.

Redford Givens

San Francisco, Calif.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens