COLUMN MISSTATES CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF DRUG USE

On Jim Munn's column titled "Dampening Demand for Drugs:"

You mistake the effects of prohibition for those of drugs themselves, and
believe that somehow "demand" must be reduced.

People always have and always will use drugs, whether they are labelled
legal or illegal. If there is no legal route to obtain illegal drugs, then
illegal routes will be followed by definition.

In fact, there is a legitimate excuse for the demand for illegal drugs:
they are safer than legal ones, such as alcohol and tobacco. Just look at
the fatalities, and their causes.

Most deaths due to illegal drugs are from overdose (black market effect) or
impurities (again black market effect).

Most deaths from legal drugs are a result of their use under the best of
circumstances (a legal, regulated regime). Smokers die of lung cancer
because of the inherent properties of tobacco, and those who drink alcohol
must deal with the consequences if they drive or operate machinery.

Heroin, for example, is a much safer drug than either tobacco or alcohol,
as it causes neither cancer nor permanent liver/brain damage (alcohol). In
fact, the worst side effect of chronic heroin usage is constipation.
Unfortunately, due to prohibition, heroin is adulterated with toxins and
the purity is unknown, therefore many users of this drug will die
unnecessarily.

Of course, none of this touches on the most basic question, which is: Do
people have the right to put whatever they want in their own bodies? If
this question were addressed, perhaps answers to other problems would fall
into place.

JASON LALANCETTE

2660 Island View Road

Saanich, British Columbia

V8M 1W3