LEGALIZATION WOULD END WIDESPREAD DRUG ABUSE

The Bluefield Daily Telegraph's inane editorial about OxyContin abuse
neglected to point out that no one would be robbing and murdering to get
drugs if they were legal. Drug prohibition is the thing "fueling crime" in
West Virginia and the rest of the United States.

All of our "drug crime" is the direct result of an insane drug prohibition
policy that has never done anything but cause crime, death and disease.

In the days before drug prohibition when addicts could buy all of the
heroin, cocaine, morphine, opium and anything else they wanted cheaply and
legally at the corner pharmacy America had nothing remotely resembling a
"drug problem" even though there were hundreds of thousands of opiate
addicts in the country.

One can fairly say that all of our current "drug problems" are the direct
consequences of a lunatic prohibition policy that has never worked for
anything, anywhere, anytime.

Instead of trying to accomplish the impossible (stopping drug use), we
should repeal our drug laws and regulate drugs for adult use. Regulation
works for alcohol distribution and regulation will work for drugs.
Prohibition, on the other hand, has never worked for anything, anywhere,
anytime.

Redford Givens

San Francisco, Calif.