LIKE ALCOHOL, RECREATIONAL DRUG USE HERE TO STAY

Ms. Michael from the Neighborhood Advisory Committee on Feb. 14 asked
Times-News readers to join a campaign to "take the focus off of
attempts to legalize drug use." What focus? I am the lone public voice
in the tri-state area for regulatory licensing for adult drug use. To
my knowledge there is no local group advocating "legalizing" drugs. I
do know with certainty there's no such thing as a drug-free community,
anymore than there is a sex-free or food-free community. Leisure drug
use is a fact of life. I disagree with her drug-free mindset because
it fails to provide adults with choices. It's also one of the
silliest, hypocritical concepts of the past 30 years, with tragic
consequences for our society. There's no reason why hardworking adults
shouldn't consume marijuana anymore than they shouldn't drink beer or
coca or tea. And, all moderate people tend to have "healthy"
lifestyles, regardless of conservative legislative moralizing.

The constant refrain of "drug-abuse" by Ms. Michael and others is
intentionally misleading because it's meant to make our community
believe that any drug use is substance abuse. It is not. The truth is
most adults who use illegal drugs are not "automatically" drug
abusers. The majority, especially marijuana consumers, are responsible
people who are dumped into the minority pool of abusers by
zero-tolerance advocates.

Ms. Michael is also guilty of omission. We don't only "glamorize
organized crime," we glamorize criminal justice in the media, TV
programs and our schools. I'm sure if there were an equal number of
sexually explicit network programs being glamorized, her outcry would
be deafening. Yet, there is a growing, unchecked abundance of cop and
court shows that are disturbingly explicit, violent and
confrontational.

Whenever a government exists to protect us from ourselves, it is time
for us to protect ourselves from government. This alienation can only
be remedied with the powers of reason and wits, not by conservative
zero-tolerance prohibitionists. As early as 1921, Albert Einstein
wrote, "The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered
considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive
of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing
laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous
increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this."

The mission to make "children and youth stronger, healthier, and more
confident" is one we all share, but not at the expense of denying the
realities of adulthood needs in our community deeds. We must have
community programs that are based on the realism that adult
recreational drug use is here to stay, as long as it's a "human"
community. Thus, I urge our neighborhoods to continue the quest to
help young people while adding adult concerns back into the equation.
It's easy. Just use the alcohol model.

Dave Crockett

Cumberland