Pubdate: Sun, 01 Jun 2003
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Copyright: 2003 Richmond Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://www.timesdispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/365
Author: Bruce Tucker
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n736/a01.html

DRUG WAR HURTS MORE THAN IT HELPS

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Commentary Columnist Joe Dombroski asserts that "[T]he profits from illegal
drugs are just as deadly to society as the drugs themselves."
["Narco-Terrorism Menaces World"].

Seventy years ago our society faced a similar situation, with the profits
from the illegal trade in liquor fueling a violent criminal empire that
threatened the public's safety and the sanctity of its laws and democratic
institutions. Society made the bolder and wiser choice and legalized
alcoholic beverages, and today the billions of dollars in liquor profits
flow to legitimate businesses and to the government's tax coffers instead.
Rather than exacerbating the indisputable social and medical problems
associated with alcohol abuse, decriminalization alleviated them by allowing
them to be treated as public-health issues and by helping society to
regulate drinking and encourage responsible use of alcohol rather than
forcing it into the margins where it is least amenable to reasonable social
control.

We can either make a similar choice today with regard to marijuana and end
the problem at a single stroke, cutting off every penny of the profits that
flow to terrorists and criminals, or we can continue to listen to the
paranoid advice of one-trick ponies such as Dombroski and still be fighting
this losing battle - and wondering why we're still losing, and why law
enforcement is still telling us we're on the verge of winning but need yet
sterner measures to see things through - in 2073.

Many years ago in school I learned a saying from Horace: Leges sine moribus
vanae ("Laws without morals are useless"). Perhaps Dombroski and those who
share his lack of imagination could profit by some time spent pondering the
meaning of the phrase.

Bruce Tucker, Charlottesville
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MAP posted-by: Josh