Pubdate: Thu, 01 Mar 2007
Source: Aldergrove Star (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 Central Fraser Valley Star Publishing Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.aldergrovestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/989
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n073/a11.html
Author: Tim Felger

LEGALIZE METH

Editor:

Making ingredients illegal won't make crystal meth go away, only more 
toxic and violent.

There are good reasons to legalize, then regulate and then even tax 
crystal meth.

Foolishly, our present government policy of drug prohibition is 
injecting price increases and violence into the black market.

Making it more illegal will only make it more toxic and violent.

I agree crystal meth is poison; the question is how to control it 
without eroding our freedoms and making the problems worse.

The violence associated with the dealing of the drug comes not from 
the drug, but from the illegality of its sale or enforcement.

Look at the government policy called drug prohibition and its 
creation, the black market, not the drug. Regulation is still 
enforcement, it is just enforcement light.

Regulation does not mean unfettered access, but restricted access. 
Just because a drug is toxic is no reason to ban it.

We don't ban gasoline or glue. These are both abused, addictive and 
do brain damage.

Making a drug illegal always increases the price, increases the 
toxicity and increases the violence, it does not eliminate it from 
the market place.

A domestic ban on the ingredents will only force us to import them at 
a higher price.

We can export production and the pollution from production, but 
demand will create an imported supply.

It is the duty of leadership to explain to the public the truths 
about the true cost of choosing more drug prohibition.

The solution I suggest is understanding drug prohibition creates 
social pollution. Ending drug prohibition means ending the propaganda.

Tim Felger,

Abbotsford