CASUAL ATTITUDE UNSAFE

Using addictive prescription drugs illegally is the same as using
illicit drugs. Unless someone is bent on suicide, most deaths from
either illicit or prescription substances are "accidental."

Those who use drugs to get high do so for amusement, not with death
or addiction in mind. However, once under the influence of these
mind-altering substances, they often do things they probably would
never have done otherwise. In Heath Ledger's case, he likely lost
track of what drugs, and how much of each, he had used.

Federal law requires that manufacturers of addictive prescription
drugs, as well as the pharmacies, hospitals and doctors who
distribute them, be carefully tracked. We must wonder, then, which of
these is getting wealthy by circumventing federal controls

Because these are legal drugs, society tends to think of them as
safe, creating a casual attitude toward use.

One has only to look at the medicalization of marijuana to see how
"legal" access has increased general use of this illicit drug,
leading to a dramatic escalation in marijuana-related medical and
psychiatric emergency room incidents.

The surging number of tragedies caused by abuse of easily obtained
addictive prescription drugs is the quintessential argument against
legalization of street drugs.

Sandra S. Bennett

La Center