NO LEGALIZATION

If drugs are legalized, America is headed for an even more dangerous
chapter in its history than experienced in the decades since alcohol was
declared legal.

For the benefit of believers in legalization, I suggest they read about a
one-year experiment with legalization laws in Zurich, Switzerland. Drug
abusers proliferated in the parks and alleyways. Dirty needles were
disposed of in public places not unlike the disposal of cigarette butts by
Americans.

As for the U.S. Congress passing a sensible law that would legalize drugs
and concentrate on treatment alone, most laws passed by Congress that
mollify and coddle a minority group complicate the condition to be relieved
and waste huge sums of taxpayer money for minimal results.

Similar to laws that legalize alcohol, it would be necessary to have a
minimum legal age set for users. Let's get real. That alone would challenge
teens to obtain drugs illegally just as it has for alcohol.

As politically incorrect as it may seem to those advocates of
oversimplified drug-legalization solutions, other countries that have much
tougher penalties for illegal drug use have pretty much solved their drug
problems.

Not only do tougher laws get the abusers off the streets, but treatment
that otherwise would be resisted is often mandatory.

RICHARD GILE

Niceville