Pubdate: Sat, 14 Nov 2009
Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL)
Copyright: 2009 St. Petersburg Times
Contact: http://www.sptimes.com/letters/
Website: http://www.tampabay.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419
Author: John Chase

SEEK A MIDDLE WAY

It's true that drug policy reformers ignore the danger of addiction.
Conversely, drug warriors tend to ignore the danger of the drug war.
There is a middle ground rarely discussed by either group.

The histories of tobacco and alcohol in 20th-century America confirm
that an unfettered free market (for tobacco) and national prohibition
(of alcohol) both caused more net societal damage than is being caused
by these drugs today. It was an important lesson.

We can minimize the net societal damage done by drugs - and their
regulation - by neither legalization nor prohibition, but somewhere
in between. The discussion should be to decide where.

John Chase, Palm Harbor
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