Source:   Houston Chronicle
Contact:    Fri, 09 Jan 1998
Website:  http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/

DRUG PROHIBITION TO BLAME

The Chronicle's Dec. 30 editorial ("Anti-drug force") said illegal drugs
are "destroying a generation of young American users, while corrupting law
enforcement and politicians in Latin America countries from Mexico to
Colombia."

I have devoted most of my life to studying drugs and you're wrong. Drug
prohibition causes corruption -- the drugs themselves are incapable of it.

Corruption caused by drug prohibition occurs all over the world, and is not
confined to Latin America.

A rational drug policy, requiring all drugs to be regulated by government
agencies instead of allowing them to be manufactured and peddled by
criminals with little or no interest in the public's welfare, would reduce
the harm currently being caused by drugs and would eliminate the harmful
effects of drug prohibition.

G. Alan Robison
Executive Director, Drug Policy Forum, Houston