Pubdate: Tue, 26 May 2009
Source: Coaster (CN NF)
Page: 4
Copyright: 2009 Coaster
Contact:  http://www.thecoaster.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3280
Author: Alan Randell

GEORGE CHUVALO IS MISTAKEN

Dear Editor,

George was a courageous and skillful boxer, but his take on the 
tragic heroin induced deaths of his sons is tragically wrong. Simply 
urging kids to "just say no" to drugs just doesn't work and besides, 
it was drug prohibition that killed his sons, not the drug itself.

Prohibition works in two ways to harm users. First, the drugs are 
often adulterated because of prohibition, so that, even though the 
1973 LeDain Commission concluded, "There appears to be little 
permanent physiological damage from chronic use of pure opiate 
narcotics," prohibition kills users by denying them access to 
unadulterated drugs. History provides confirmation of this process 
when we recall that the prohibition of alcohol poisoned thousands by 
denying them access to unadulterated alcohol. My 19-year-old son, 
Peter, died in 1993 shortly after ingesting some street heroin.

Second, the price charged by dealers, are much higher than they would 
be if the drugs were legally available at the corner store because 
the dealer has to factor in the possibility of getting caught by the police.

How sad to see that George Chuvalo has been bamboozled into 
supporting the very laws that killed his sons, the failed crusade of 
drug prohibition.

Alan Randell

Victoria, B.C.
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