Pubdate: Tues, 25 Sep 2001 Source: Rock River Times (IL) Website: http://www.rockrivertimes.com/ Feedback: http://www.rockrivertimes.com/contact.shtml Address: 128 N. Church St., Rockford, Illinois 61101 Contact: The Rock River Times 2001 Fax: 815 964-9825 Author: Kirk Muse, http://www.mapinc.org/writers/Kirk+Muse Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1692/a06.html Note: Title by MAP editor SIMON RIGHT ON THE MARK To the Editors of The Rock River Times: M. L. Simon's OPED: "SUPPORTING AMERICA'S ENEMIES" was right on the mark. (9-19-01) How much of the $43 million that we donated to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan was used fund the terrorists activities against the United States? How much of the what the United Nations estimates to be a $400 billion industry, the illegal drug trade, is used to fund terrorists activities? $1 billion? $10 billion? We will never know for sure. At the turn of the last century, Bayer heroin was sold in local pharmacies for about the same price as Bayer aspirin. If we re-legalized recreational drugs, drug lords would be out of business in a heartbeat. If we re-legalized recreational drugs, terrorists would lose a major source of their funding. What message would the re-legalization of recreational drugs send to our children? That it is not the proper role of a free country's government to attempt to dictate to its citizens what they may or may not put into their own bodies. Best regards, Kirk Muse - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck