LEGALIZE DRUGS

Thank you for publishing Terry Michael's outstanding
Op-Ed column, "Legalize drugs" (Monday). When we legalized alcohol in
1933 after Prohibition, we didn't surrender to the alcohol cartels -
we put them out of business.

When we legalize, regulate, tax and control our now-unregulated,
untaxed and uncontrolled drugs, our overall crime rate will decline
substantially. The drug dealers, drug lords and drug cartels will be
put out of business overnight, and our robust prison-building industry
will come to a screeching halt.

Many judges and prison wardens say that at least 70 percent of our
violent crime and property crime is drug-related. Actually, almost 100
percent of so-called drug-related crime is caused by our
drug-criminalization policies - not the drugs themselves. When most
types of recreational drugs were legally available on grocery store
shelves and in pharmacies for pennies per dose, the term "drug-related
crime" didn't exist. Neither did drug lords, drug cartels or even drug
dealers as we know them today.

It's time to chart a new course in our drug war. Our current policies
are not working except to assure the full employment of those doing
the prohibiting.

KIRK MUSE

Mesa, Ariz.