Pubdate: Mon, 27 Jun 2011 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2011 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Author: Bob Ramsey, Member of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas. Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n395/a10.html DISPATCHES FROM THE WAR ON DRUGS To the Editor: At some point we must extend to other drugs the same uneasy truce we have made with alcohol. The mental chasm is to accept such a thing as "responsible" drug use just as we accept the concept of "responsible" alcohol use. The many disastrous consequences of drug prohibition will keep getting worse until people become more afraid of prohibition than of drug use. Legal regulation is not a good solution, just the best one. When I began studying the history of drug laws, I soon became interested in alcohol prohibition. I have come to believe that the main difference is the scale of the problem: compared with alcohol, other drugs are such a small problem that it has been possible to believe for much longer that criminal law can change human appetites. Alcohol prohibition turned America upside down in less than 10 years and was repealed in 13 years. Prohibition of other drugs has taken 10 times as long to create the destruction we are seeing today. How much longer? BOB RAMSEY Irving, Tex., June 17, 2011 - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.