Pubdate: Sat, 25 May 2002 Source: Anniston Star (AL) Copyright: 2002 Consolidated Publishing Contact: http://www.annistonstar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/923 Author: Redford Givens SPEAK OUT ... ON REPEALING DRUG LAWS There is no deep mystery about the cause of prison overcrowding in Alabama - drug prohibition is the cause. Without drug users the prison system would be plenty big enough to handle all of the real criminals - the robbers, child molesters, kidnappers and murderers. Since more than 50 percent of all crime is "drug (prohibition) related," ending prohibition will cause an across-the-board reduction in crime. Instead of sanity we get mindless alibis that never address the fact that Amer-ica's lunatic drug crusade causes far more crime, disease and death than drugs by themselves ever did or ever could do. The solution to America's self-created "drug problems" is to repeal brain-dead drug laws and regulate adult drug use the way we do alcohol. It's worth remembering that Eliot Ness and the revenuers never put the booze barons out of business. Repeal and a regulated market for adult alcohol use ended the bootleg era. Regulation works for alcohol and regulation will work for drugs. Prohibition, on the other hand, has never worked for anything, anywhere, anytime. Redford Givens San Francisco - --- MAP posted-by: Josh