LEGALIZE METH

Editor,

Daily Herald:

"Meth is here and it's not going to go away. It's highly lucrative to
make this and it is highly addictive. We need to be proactive in
identifying how to deal with this."

In the 1930s, it wasn't the rumrunners, speakeasy owners, distillers,
or alcoholics who demanded the regulation of alcohol. It was mothers,
grandmothers, and teachers.

Women in the last century knew something that our modern society
can't seem to figure out: Prohibition does not reduce crime and
danger, it causes it. How many bathtub gin mills do we see now that
alcohol is regulated?

Meth is not new. JFK and Hitler were both big users. If meth were
made by pharmaceutical companies and sold to adults in pharmacies, we
wouldn't have as many clandestine meth labs. If we gave meth out free
at the clinics, the local meth dealer would have no customers.

The stuff is pennies a dose when made by professional labs, and with
no need to buy meth, the addicts wouldn't have to steal.

Sure there would still be addicts, but they would be on quality
controlled, dose regulated treatment coming from a nurse instead of
home made insanity-powder they bought off of some creep. And the
program would cost taxpayers a fifth of what we waste now on this
absurd cops-courts-cages routine.

Unfortunately, a lot of the meth made in Canada is sold in the US to
feed their insatiable appetite for drugs. Even if we gave it away
free to addicts like we do with methadone, people will still make
meth because there is a market for it next door.

Pot growers need months to grow a profitable crop, whereas a kilo of
meth can be mixed up over a weekend. A marijuana grow op can catch
fire, but seldom do. A meth lab explosion can instantly turn a three
bedroom house into confetti. Which would you rather have next door?

Russell Barth,

Ottawa