ADULTS AND DRUGS

Mary A. Mitchell [column, July 25) suggests we consider decriminalizing
drugs as a way to reduce crime by taking the big money out of the trade.

I say yes: Let's allow adults to use any drugs they please--and then hold
them totally responsible for the consequences.

Any wrongdoing while "under the influence" should be punished as if you had
done it on purpose. If you get high on marijuana and damage the machinery
where you work, you will be charged with sabotage. If LSD makes you think
you can fly and you leap out of a high window, you will be deemed a
suicide, and your insurance will not pay off. If you drive drunk and kill
someone, you will go up for murder. (Yes, of course include alcohol, the
same as any other mind-altering drug.)

If you choose to let your body run out of control, you should be held 100
percent responsible for whatever it does. Your choice, your punishment.

Legalization will end the vast profits that repay drug producers, smugglers
and dealers for their risks in breaking the law. No risks, no profits.
Smuggling drugs would be as pointless as smuggling aspirin.

To discourage drug use, punish the user--not the dealer he buys from. More
dealers will always spring up.

Of course, drug use by children must still be illegal. However, a black
market selling only to children should be much simpler to fight. Instead of
a long chain of illegal producers, smugglers and dealers who must each be
paid for his risk, the black market would have only one step: the adult who
buys drugs legally and then resells them illegally to children. Since most
children don't have a lot of money, could the illegal dealer charge enough
to make it worth his risk? Especially if the punishments for selling to
children are truly ferocious, such as death on the third offense?

It's time to start talking about this.

George W. Price, Portage Park