Pubdate: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 Source: Arbiter, The (Boise State, ID Edu) Copyright: 2005 The Arbiter Contact: http://www.arbiteronline.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3516 Author: Howard J. Wooldridge Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1915/a03.html YOU'RE A SAD, UNINFORMED MAN As a retired police officer, I found Mr. Stoker's defense of drug prohibition so sad. He refuses to recognize that prohibition causes 75 percent of felony crime decade after decade. Drug use is a consensual act, whether it's whiskey or pot. Murder, rape, etc is a non-consensual act and will always remain illegal. As legal drugs kill at a 55:1 ratio over illegal drugs, he wants my profession to continue chasing pot smokers instead of focusing on drunk drivers who killed 17,000 innocent Americans last year. Prohibition does fund billions to terrorists like Osama Bin Laden and North Korea. Fourteen-year-olds are shot and killed everyday because we give them a job option to be drug dealers. I challenge Mr. Stoker to name one substantive advantage of drug prohibition. Officer Howard J. Wooldridge (retired) Frederick, Md. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake