Pubdate: Sun, 26 Dec 1999
Date: 12/26/1999
Source: Detroit News (MI)
Author: Redford Givens
Authors: Redford Givens

So much for the draconian prison sentences that were supposed to wipe
out drug dealing in Michigan (“Neighbors live in terror as drug houses
flourish,” Dec. 19). Drug prohibition doesn’t work, no matter how hard
the police crack down or how many dealers are sent to prison.

The only hope people like John Westbrook have of ever reclaiming their
communities is by repealing the brain-dead drug laws that create crack
houses and street dealers in the first place. In a regulated market,
drug dealers could be zoned out of residential areas.

The violence related to an outlaw market is caused by turf wars, not
drug use. In a regulated market, disputes would be settled by
licensing boards and lawyers instead of Uzis and AK-47s.

It’s time to admit that our disastrous drug crusade is as big a
mistake as the noble experiment of alcohol prohibition in the 1920s
and 1930s.

Redford Givens,
San Francisco, Calif.

Note: This will be PUB LTE 38 in the PUB LTE archives for Mr. Givens.
http://www.mapinc.org/lte/
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1376/a01.html
Also: This newspaper is currently conducting a poll on the state's
marijuana initiative. More votes are needed. Messages to discussion lists
Sunday resulted not only in votes, but also over 85 written responses
posted at the following URL, some of which could be published.
See: http://data.detnews.com:8081/poll/survey.hbs