END PROHIBITION

How ironic it is that "throwing money at problems" was a charge against
liberals in years past, yet that is now the preferred method of the
anti-marijuana community. We spend billions annually on prohibition. a
better name than "War On Drugs."

It conjures up that failed experiment of the 1920s, in which most of our
parents or grandparents also broke the law.

U.S. Attorney Jay McCloskey's argument contained the following fact:
cigarettes, alcohol and prescriptions: 700,000 dead; marijuana, cocaine and
heroin: 5,000 dead. He claims cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana are gateway
drugs, but indications are that cigarettes and alcohol always precede
marijuana.

Decriminalizing these substances is the best of a bad bunch of tactics, of
which the current course is the worst.

It is the profit motive which drives the criminal element, and the cost
which turns addicts into thieves.

I don't advocate escape from reality by drug use, but the truth is: law
enforcement has been given an unwinnable assignment. We're about to begin
defoliating Colombia. What kinds of international incidents will follow?