Pubdate: Wed, 01 Oct 2003
Source: Sentinel, The (GA Edu)
Copyright: 2003 Kennesaw State University
Contact:  http://www.ksusentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2908
Author: Joel Guerra

LEGALIZE DRUGS HERE

Dear Editor,

The article on drug use makes people out to be such addicts. If people who 
use drugs recreationally are addicts, then it should follow that anyone who 
uses alcohol recreationally is an addict. They are both drugs. America is 
so behind when it comes to the normalization of drugs. I guess, in keeping 
drugs illegal, the government can make money. It costs $10,000 plus to keep 
one drug offender in jail for one year. Most of America's millions in jail 
are in there because of drug-related crimes. You and I are paying for this, 
not George Dubya. Drugs should be decriminalized (normalized), as they been 
in many European countries. But for Americans to know what goes on in other 
countries, they would have to know that other countries exist, right? In a 
survey of 6,000 18 to 24 year olds, only 17 percent were able to locate 
Afghanistan on a map. America is no longer the trailblazer it once was, but 
a follower that is slow to change. Ironic that "the land of the free" is 
not as free as countries like The Netherlands and Denmark.

Joel Guerra
Senior, Sociology
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart