Pubdate: Tue, 14 Jul 1998
Source : Orange County Register (CA)
Contact:  http://www.ocregister.com/

I take issue with your editorial, "The unwinnable war" [Opinion, July 7].
The drug war is winnable.

The powers that be who have declared the war have improperly viewed the
cause and effect relationship between illegal drugs and crime. Before
cocaine, herion and marijuana were declared illegal, there was very little
property crime in this country. Once the drug laws were passed, the real
crime rate went up. Drug overdoses, Aids transmission, drug labs blowing up
and killing innocent children, drug dealers on the school grounds and all
of the other nasty things the drug war is supposed to prevent are, in
fact,being caused by the war.

Let's go back to the time when we did not have these problems. Let's
relegalize drugs. We already know it would work. We've already proved it.

Bob Hart-Tustin

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