Pubdate: Sat, 05 Jul 2003 Source: Bradenton Herald (FL) Copyright: 2003 Bradenton Herald Contact: http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradentonherald/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/58 Author: Kirk Muse DRUG BAN NO BENEFIT I'm writing about John Chase's outstanding letter: "Legalize Drugs" (Wednesday). I'd like to add that 90 years ago we had no such thing as "drug-related crime." That's because all types of recreational drugs were legally available at local pharmacies for pennies per dose. Ninety years ago, we had about 1.8 percent of our population addicted to drugs, according to federal Judge John Kane of Colorado. That is the same percentage we have addicted to drugs today. Today, we don't have coffee-related crime nor tobacco-related crime. We soon would have, if either of these products were taken off the legitimate market and criminalized. If coffee or tobacco were criminalized, they would be untaxed, unregulated and controlled by criminal gangs just like recreational drugs are today. As to the message we would send to our children if we re-legalized recreational drugs - it's not the proper role of a free country's government to attempt to protect adult citizens from themselves. KIRK MUSE Mesa, Ariz. - --- MAP posted-by: SHeath(DPFFlorida)