Pubdate: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB) Copyright: 2001 Calgary Herald Contact: http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66 Author: Taco van Ieperen Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy) DECRIMINALIZE ECSTASY Re: "Soaring ecstasy use alarms police," Dec. 2. There is mounting medical evidence that chronic ecstasy use can have long-term effects on the areas of the brain responsible for short-term memory. However, these risks pale in comparison with the much greater dangers posed to ecstasy users by the drug's illegality. What sort of terrible harm do ecstasy users do that justifies the extreme persecution they face? We are willing to lock some of them in prison and saddle them with criminal records. Some we kill by making it easier for some dealers to sell other, more dangerous substances. The fact is ecstasy, at least in the short term, is a reasonably safe substance compared to something like alcohol. The vast majority of ecstasy-related deaths and hospitalizations are due to other drugs which are sold as ecstasy or taken in combination with it. The decision to take ecstasy is no more the business of the state than the decision to drink alcohol or to smoke tobacco. Alcohol prohibition showed us that the downside of criminalizing a substance which millions of people want clearly outweighs any possible benefits. Ecstasy should be regulated like alcohol and tobacco and kept out of the hands of minors. Our current policies are absurd. We have created an entire generation of criminals out of nothing in the name of protecting them from themselves. Taco van Ieperen Calgary - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk