LEGALIZE DRUGS AND HELP ABUSERS

The war on drugs will never be won. We are wasting valuable resources,
restricting constitutional freedoms and inundating our prisons in the our
effort to combat drug use. By making drug use illegal, we have created a
"Prohibition" atmosphere with an increase in crime.

The biggest drug problem in the United States is not with marijuana,
heroin, amphetamines or barbiturates. It is with alcohol abuse. The
government wants us to believe that alcohol is not a drug, but it is a
narcotic that dulls the senses, induces sleep and becomes addictive with
prolonged use. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, drunken drivers
kill someone in America every 32 minutes. Should we therefore prohibit
alcohol consumption again? Of course not, because there are many more
responsible drinkers than there are abusers.

Instead we now treat alcohol abuse as a medical or psychological problem,
and we pass laws that restrict when and where people may drink. I believe
all drugs should fall in the same classification as alcohol, and we should
end the war on drugs.

Instead of incarcerating drug abusers, we should treat them the same as we
do alcohol abusers and help them to lead normal lives in society. There are
many responsible people who can and do use drugs recreationally without any
harmful effect to themselves or to society.

There are religious sects who use peyote, marijuana and mushrooms without
becoming helpless addicts. And the Netherlands has proved that
decriminalization of drug use does not cause a collapse of society nor an
increase in crime.

I am not an advocate of drug use. In fact, I believe there are many harmful
drugs that nobody should become involved with. But I am against laws that
make drug use a crime instead of a problem. Let us start a drug education
campaign that uses facts rather than propaganda and grant amnesty to all
prisoners of the drug war.

Lionel De Leon Lives in Garden Grove