LEGALIZE DRUGS TO REDUCE CRIME

It is time to protect the innocent from crimes related to drug
addiction. I added up my costs from crimes likely linked to
addiction: Three new convertible tops, $3,000; the leather interior
of my car stolen, $7,000; and, most recently, $4,000 after an
unsuccessful crowbar assault on a door. All were covered by
insurance, but what a waste.

During Prohibition in the United States the ban on alcohol created
the same mayhem. Only legalizing it put the gangsters out of business.

We now have legalized alcohol, cigarettes, gambling and prostitution.
We are left with all the associated health problems, but nobody
breaks into a car to get money to buy a bottle of booze or cigarettes.

Adults can choose to use drugs or not. Use them and you might
eventually die as a result, just as with legal cigarettes and alcohol
if they are abused.

Cheap, legal drugs would protect the innocent from crime and our
troops in Afghanistan from a war where the Taliban finance their
forces with drug money. Drug dealers would be out of business.

I am not recommending that anybody use drugs or for that matter
become an alcoholic. I want to stop the mayhem and protect the innocent.

Charles Gorrie

Victoria.