Pubdate: Thu, 17 June 1999
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Copyright: 1999, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Contact:  414-224-8280
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/
Forum: http://www.jsonline.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimate.cgi
Author: Dave Michon
Note: Original: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n621.a05.html

ANTI-CRANK MEASURE JUST ENCOURAGES UNDERGROUND

Sen. Herb Kohl's knee-jerk response to the methamphetamine problem in rural
Wisconsin would be understandable if the senator hadn't already seen enough
years of failed and counterproductive drug policy like this - sending
resources to enforcement, which ratchets up price, which brings in more drug
producers.

Surely as sharp a businessman as Kohl can see the folly of the Rural
Methamphetamine Use Response Act. He is only fulfilling his part as a
prohibitionist of an artificial market by raising prices when he turns up
the heat.

There will always be a small demand for drugs, but by making them ever more
profitable in turning the  enforcement screw, Kohl only induces further
"marketing" on the part of the underground.

Will we ever see a little common sense in this topsy-turvy world of drug
prohibition in which famous American businessmen are wont to ignore the
workings of America's second-largest market - drugs?

No matter how pure their intentions, it is they who have produced the
current situation by making these simple chemicals so incredibly profitable.
In fact, if they had eased off years ago, the underground would never have
had the incentive to produce crack and crank in the first place.

Kohl's proposed law just keeps us rolling down that same dead-end road.

Dave Michon, Spooner

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