JUST SAY NO MORE

Ending War on Drugs Wouldn't Turn Us into Addicts

In Sunday's letters to the editor, there were three responses to The
Gazette's view that the war on drugs is a failure. Two responders,
James Spieth and Howard Wooldridge, agreed that the war is a dismal
failure and should be reviewed, while Jocelyne Kamerer feels the war
on drugs is justified: drugs are against the law and it is the
government's duty to uphold the law ("Government-issued drugs would
solve problem;" "It's political suicide to speak against prohibition;"
"Gazette doesn't get it: drugs are illegal"). I agree with all three
writers.

There are three objectives in the war on drugs: to eliminate violent
drug cartels, keep drugs away from our children and to eliminate drug
use in America. The first two objectives are honorable and obtainable
while the third objective is not. Trying to govern the actions of
adults in the privacy of their own homes has never worked. That
objective tramples on our individual liberty.

Virtually all street gangs and terrorist organizations benefit from
the illegal drug trade. The repeal of drug prohibition would produce
the following benefits: A fortune in tax dollars could be put to
better use, a huge blow would be dealt to the organizations that
profit from this black market, and at long last, control of the drug
trade along with the tax revenues that comes from its supervision and
distribution. So, the first two honorable objectives of the drug war
are accomplished. All that's left is for the government to profit from
our liberty.

When a politician questions the war on drugs, the opposing party
claims that the results would be nation of drug addicts.
Realistically, if drugs were legal, how many Gazette readers would be
saying to themselves, "I've got a hankering to buy a hypodermic
needle, fill it with heroin and stick it in my arm"? Not many, but
there will be a few, just as there were a few teetotalers who became
social drinkers or alcoholics after Prohibition. But they have the
liberty to chose and accept the consequences, just as the founders
intended.

Gerald Hunter

Colorado Springs