TO AVOID MORE NEEDLESS KILLINGS, LEGALIZE DRUGS

TAOS-- Could the collision of the two worlds of Elton John Richard II
and Daniel Romero have been avoided, and with that avoidance the
tragic death and pending imprisonment that resulted?

Of course; there are cusps on a reverse timeline where different
decisions could have produced different results.

Richard could have shown remorse for killing a man for a property
crime; that may have provided the judge with an opportunity for even
greater lenience in sentencing.

Richard could have chosen not to shoot Romero.

Richard could have chosen to end his pursuit without confronting
Romero. He could have chosen not to pursue over a failed attempt to
steal his vehicle and damage to that vehicle.

Romero could have chosen another target or another way to pay his
dealer. Romero could have chosen not to use cocaine to the point of
abuse and becoming indebted to a criminal.

These are all decisions available to the primary participants in this
tragedy but in each instance the decisions made took the pair further
down the wrong road.

I do not condone the actions of either, but I have an appreciation
either directly or indirectly for their individual circumstances. I
am a Marine veteran with combat experience in Vietnam; I retired from
law enforcement with experience as an undercover narcotics
investigator and other assignments, including deputy chief of police
in Gainesville, Fla.

I have been the victim of burglary and understand the anger, the rage
that can ensue, emotions that perhaps course more strongly through a
combat veteran. I have had multiple occasions when I could have
justifiably taken the life of another and chose not to. I have never
regretted the decision to allow another to live.

The law is clear about when the taking of life is justified and it
does not include the simple taking or attempt to take property. The
outcry to pardon or commute Richard's sentence has no legal basis of
which I am aware. It is emotional not objective and would produce the
type of result that laws are enacted to prevent. If it weren't for
emotional decision-making this incident might never had happened, so
enough of that.

If we look objectively at the supposed root cause of the incident we
can see that another decision-making opportunity existed that might
have prevented this incident. That decision is one for which we are
all responsible, not just Richard and Romero.

It is said that the attempt to steal was to pay a drug dealer because
Romero bought more cocaine than he could pay for. Had he never used,
or overused, he would not have had problems with his dealer. If he
had not had to go to a drug pusher to obtain a drug for recreational
use this entire chain of events might never had occurred.

The right or wrong of recreational drug use is not my point, and I do
not advocate such use. I do, however, recognize that such use is
deeply ingrained in our society. Recreational drugs, including
alcohol and nicotine, are widely used with an interesting
distribution of harm. The two legal recreational drugs are known to
cause various problems, even death from prolonged use or overdose.
Often the most harm from use of illegal recreational drugs comes, not
from the use, but from the prohibition of that use.

Had Romero been able to legally purchase standardized, controlled--
and taxed-- cocaine, the pusher would have been eliminated from the
equation. Had we as a society acknowledged the reality of using
recreational drugs and legalized-- not decriminalized-- them,
controlled, produced, taxed and distributed them, there would have
been no criminals selling them. The tax proceeds could have been used
to establish educational prevention programs as well as treatment
programs for those who are unable to use successfully.

Had we done those things then we, as a society, as a nation would not
bear so large a share of the responsibility for the tragedy these two
people have experienced.

It is not too late to prevent future tragedies.