DRUG LAWS NEED TEETH

America's soul, heart and spirit are being steadily destroyed by the use of
hard, addictive drugs and by the evil business that has grown up around drugs.

America's soul is by no means the only casualty of the war on drugs. The
drug trade has upset or destroyed the economies and social order of
countries from northern South America, up through Central America and
including many Caribbean islands.

Drug-driven crime has risen in all of these areas. Politicians have been
corrupted. Many, including even a Roman Catholic cardinal, have been
murdered. Obscene amounts of money surge around the world in the wrong
hands, creating and exacerbating social problems and crime at all levels of
society throughout these regions.

Who exactly is to blame for this? Any fair-minded person must see that this
whole problem is not supply-driven but is demand-driven. Cut off demand in
North America and the whole problem will vanish quickly.

If you land in Singapore with even a modest amount of drugs in your
possession, you stand a good chance of having your head separated from your
body. They have no drug problem in Singapore.

The argument that Prohibition was a failure is irrelevant. Cocaine, for
example, is infinitely more addictive and destructive than alcohol (or
tobacco). Some are almost irreversibly addicted and thus consigned to a
life of crime to support their new habit, after only two or three uses!

If America wishes to save herself, she needs to pass drug laws bordering on
the barbaric and needs to enforce them rigorously.

I say forget the supply side and work on the demand side. Execute dealers
on second conviction involving all but tiny amounts. Treat users, yes, but
punish them very severely on second conviction.

The question is: Will America have the wit to understand the problem and
the guts to remedy it?

David M.W. Hummel Scottsdale The writer is a retired attorney.