Pubdate: Fri, 07 Sep 2007
Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB)
Copyright: 2007 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://www.winnipegsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503
Author: Kirk Muse

LEGALIZE BLACK-MARKET DRUGS

Re: Drug prohibition doesn't work, Aug. 28.

I'm writing about Jeremy Loome's outstanding column.

If Canada and the United States re-legalized all our illegal drugs so 
that they could be sold by licenced and regulated businesses for 
pennies per dose, would this eliminate our drug problems? No.

However, doing so would dramatically reduce our crime rate and 
dramatically increase public safety.

Will we ever be able to eliminate our drug problems? No.

However, we can substantially reduce the harm caused by our illegal 
drugs. Regulated and controlled drugs would be of known purity, known 
potency and known quality -- which would make them very much safer 
than today's black-market drugs.

But what message would we send to children if we legalized all 
illegal drugs so they could be sold in licenced, regulated and taxed 
business establishments?

The same message we send to children today when we allow products 
such as alcohol and tobacco to be sold in licenced, regulated and 
taxed business establishments.

A free country's government cannot protect its adult citizens from 
themselves. A free country's government has no right to attempt to do so.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

(They already do just that in many areas.)
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman