Pubdate: Sat, 05 Jan 2002
Source: The Monitor (TX)
Copyright: 2002 The Monitor
Contact:  http://www.themonitor.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1250
Author: Walter C. Hickman
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n004/a12.html

INCOHERENT RAMBLING ABOUT LEGALIZATION

To the editor:

The person responsible for The Monitor View must be doing a bit of 
"snorting" himself. I refer to the view of Jan. 2 -- the advocating of the 
legalization of drugs as a protection of our rights and civil liberties. 
One would not expect to read such incoherent ramblings in our prestigious 
Monitor.

"What a peaceable person decides to put into his body is no business of the 
government"? When the consequences of what "a peaceable person decides to 
put into his body" infringe on the rights of another peaceable person, it 
does become a community concern. The same as if that peaceable person takes 
a drink too many and runs a stoplight, which is one of our community 
problems, then it is of concern not only to the family of those killed, but 
to the entire community whose safety is threatened.

In some states, it is of community concern when a pregnant woman takes 
drugs. It is a concern when that pregnant woman drinks alcohol, resulting 
in birth handicaps that becomes the community's problem in attempting to 
salvage that young life.

What The Monitor recommends as the answer to the country's drug problem was 
tried in Zurich, Switzerland, in the early '90s, when the government 
abdicated its responsibility by initiating just such an experiment. Zurich 
became the Mecca and magnet for the world's junkies. I just hope I never 
see such a junkyard of wrecked lives and lost hope -- especially in my own 
country.

Does this experiment that The Monitor advocates include the date rape pill, 
LSD, ecstasy or whatever else is out there?

We are having the fight of our lives in reducing teen smoking and drinking. 
Making drugs more accessible and affordable will only condemn more to the 
scrap pile and greatly increase teen suicide -- but is it really none of 
our business? Get real, Monitor.

Walter C. Hickman, Mission
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager