ENDING DRUG WAR MAKES SENSE

Thanks for publishing the thoughtful letter "Drug war only compounds
problem" on July 26.

If all types of recreational drugs were re-legalized and sold in
regulated, controlled and taxed business establishments for pennies
per dose, our overall crime rate would decline dramatically, and our
public safety would increase substantially.

And, I believe that our overall hard drug usage rates would decline
substantially. That's because drug dealers as we know them today would
disappear for economic reasons.

The first time almost all drug users use a particular drug, they don't
buy it; either a friend or drug dealer gives it to them.

Most retail drug dealers of hard drugs are addicts themselves. They
sell drugs to finance their own drug habit and recruit new users by
offering free samples to potential customers. With the end of drug
prohibition, this practice would end for economic reasons.

KIRK MUSE

Mesa, Ariz.