Pubdate: Mon, 03 Mar 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 REMOVE DRUG BANS Thank you for publishing Richard Sinnott's outstanding letter: "Legal heroin is safer" (Feb. 7). I'd like to add that when all types of recreational drugs were legally sold in local pharmacies for pennies per dose, the term "drug-related crime" didn't exist. Neither did drug lords nor drug cartels. These were all created by drug prohibition policies - not the drugs themselves. Ninety years ago when all types of recreational drugs were legally sold in local pharmacies, the U.S. addiction rate was 1.3 percent of our population, according to U.S. District Judge John Kane. According to Judge Kane, today we have 1.3 percent of our population addicted to drugs. Ninety years ago, drug users didn't have to rob, steal or commit acts of prostitution to obtain their drugs. Ninety years ago, the United States was not the most incarcerated nation in history. We are today - thanks primarily to our counterproductive war on drugs. It's time to do something different - substantially different. KIRK MUSE Mesa, Ariz. - --- MAP posted-by: SHeath(DPFFlorida)