Pubdate: Fri, 24 Jan 2014
Source: Houston Chronicle ( TX )
Copyright: 2014 Robert H.  Smiley
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Robert H.  Smiley
Note: One of two letters

Mixed Messages About Pot

PROHIBITION

The Harris County district attorney is wrong about which 
mind-altering drug is most widely used by young people: It's alcohol, 
a much more dangerous drug than marijuana.  And because of its 
destructive effects, we once tried Prohibition.  That really worked 
out well, didn't it? It made two-bit thugs like Chicago's Al Capone 
into rich and powerful men with lots of police and judges on his 
payroll.  It also made Prohibition agent Eliot Ness use methods that 
were as violent and ruthless as Capone's in his version of the war on 
drugs.  Sound familiar?

People like the D.A.  refuse to learn from history and refuse to 
understand basic economics: If you make something that a lot of 
people want to do or consume illegal, you drive up the price and 
produce all sorts of unintended consequences.  You do not and cannot 
make it go away.  Much better to keep that particular market legal 
and attempt to enact sensible laws and regulations to lessen the 
potential harm to society.

Robert H.  Smiley,

Friendswood  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D