Pubdate: Sun, 15 Oct 2006 Source: Ogdensburg Journal/Advance News (NY) Copyright: 2006 Johnson Newspaper Corp. Contact: http://www.ogd.com/letter.htm Website: http://www.ogd.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/689 Author: Lee Monnet Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n1370.a01.html DRUG USE LOBBY To The Editor: In part I agree with the editorial "Crack Epidemic Can't Be Ignored.", we do have a serious crack cocaine problem in this city, county, and country including the crime associated with it. As a drug law reformer I take issue with the editor's presumptuous label "recreational drug use lobby". Over the years the editors of the Ogdensburg Journal have penned some very acrimonious editorials against people who dare to question the wisdom of our government's war on drugs. Many of us have often tried to explain to the editors our position to no avail. I would like to make it perfectly clear to the editors that drug law reformers do not advocate drug use, and that nobody I know of wants to see their children involved with illicit or legal drugs including alcohol. However, many of us in fact have come to the realization that drugs are always going to be with us and we must learn to live with them as safely as possible (harm reduction). The intentions of the government's current drug policy -- reducing crime, drug addiction, and juvenile drug use -- have not been achieved, even after nearly four decades of a policy of "war on drugs". This policy, fueled by over a trillion of our tax dollars has done nothing or very little to reduce the levels of drug addiction in our nation, but has instead resulted in a tremendous increase in crime and in the numbers of Americans in our prisons and jails. With 4.6% of the world's population, America today has 22.5% of the world's prisoners. But, after all that time, after all the destroyed lives and after all the wasted resources, prohibited drugs today are cheaper, stronger, and easier to get than they were thirty-five years ago at the beginning of the so-called "war on drugs". Although the editor is correct to point out the horrible crimes that have been linked to drug dealing, these crimes for the most part are committed in the act of procuring and profiteering from drugs, a result of prohibition. The illicit drug trade must be regulated by the government or the criminal element will continue to flourish in this lucrative black market regardless of how many law enforcement officers are added, we simply cannot arrest our way out of this problem. Lee Monnet - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin