Our silly, ineffectual " war on drugs " amounts to shooting house
flies with cannon balls and pretending the holes in the wall don't
matter.

Government cannot legislate personal choices.

People will take drugs, gamble, smoke, have abortions, drink, and take
same sex partners whether such choices are legal or not, and there's
nothing the government can do about it.

If the government wants to control drugs, it must make them as legal
as tobacco and liquor.

Then it could regulate the purity, eliminating one cause of death, and
package them with a clean needle, eliminating another.

Legal drugs would be as affordable as liquor, removing the need to
steal.

No drug peddlers would hang out at school yards.

No one's property would be confiscated on mere suspicion.

Cops would have time to look for real criminals. Marijuana for medical
purposes could be obtained without hassle. Hemp could be put to some
of its numerous good uses. The " prison industry" could be dismantled,
and the money used to help people quit drugs.

Congress does not have the guts to legalize drugs.

Politicians know the blather like " war on drugs " gets them votes,
and that talk about legalizing gets pastors swinging their fists
shouting " What kind of message does this send to our children?"

Well, I'll tell you. Any kid who knows the difference between legal
and illegal knows it's only a crazy person who continues to do the
same thing over and over, hoping that next time the results will be
different.

Cathrine Mann Bend, OR