Pubdate: Sat, 26 Nov 2011
Source: London Free Press (CN ON)
Copyright: 2011 The London Free Press
Contact: http://www.lfpress.com/comment/letters/write/
Website: http://www.lfpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/243
Author: Mary McKim

DECRIMINALIZING FIXES MESS

After long reflecting on this increasingly troubling world issue, it
has become clear that the only solution is to:

Legalize all drugs, thus removing all criminal charges for their use
and possession.

Allow availability on prescription. Discourage physicians from
ordering inordinate amounts of pain killers, which so often results in
a patient's dependence.

Remove profit motives from worldwide drug cartels. Eliminate role of
"drug pusher." This will end drug violence, and murders of
law-enforcement officials and rival dealers (imagine Mexico and Columbia).

Purchase Afghan heroin from growers for medical purposes
worldwide.

Remove necessity for criminal activity resulting from addicts' need to
support their "habit."

Save millions in policing, court costs, and incarceration. Our prime
minister could suspend plans for new prisons.

Cease burning marijuana from grow ops and use for medical needs to
relieve pain and nausea.

Spend money saved for addiction treatment facilities, so
needed.

Provide more help and counselling for sexually abused children. Such
abuse is so often the precursor of drug use in an attempt to dull
psychic pain. For girls. this frequently results in prostituting in
order to buy the necessary supply of drugs.

I believe with this one act of decriminalization we would see a world
transformed, and the horrific acts of drug traffickers and cartels
become extinct.

Mary McKim

London
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.