Pubdate: Fri, 18 Nov 2011 Source: Anniston Star (AL) Copyright: 2011 Consolidated Publishing Contact: http://www.annistonstar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/923 Author: Dawn Palmer End drug prohibition When Mexico's president was elected in 2006, he said the war on drugs was going to be his No. 1 priority. Since then, an estimated 34,000 people have died in Mexico as a result of the drug cartels fighting over the trade routes for their illegal drugs. In September of this year, 35 bodies were dumped on a busy freeway during rush hour as people watched in horror. You don't see Purdue Pharma pharmaceuticals beheading the employees of Endo pharmaceuticals just because they are launching a generic version of all four strengths of Oxycontin, for which Purdue Pharma holds the patent. Instead, they are in court because these are legal drugs and they have to go through the legal channels. When you make drugs illegal, you create an illegal market that creates illegal activity. We are using the same logic with drug prohibition as we did with alcohol prohibition. During alcohol prohibition, not all alcohol was illegal. Alcohol in medicine was legal and wine could be used in religious ceremonies. Hard liquor, however, was illegal, which led to the creation of bootleggers and the gangs fighting over the trade routes for their illegal alcohol. Remember the St. Valentine's Day massacre in 1929? We are not only using the same logic with drug prohibition as we did with alcohol prohibition, but we are getting the same results. Dawn Palmer Tarrant - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.