Source: Waco TribuneHerald
Contact: letters@mail.iamerica.net

Legalize
By John Wilson

"Historically, prohibitions have not been effective
and are always very costly to support." Municipal
Court Judge John Roberts, Jan. 8 TribuneHerald.

Highway drug traps will succeed only in making the
drug trade more lucrative, spawning crime, violence
and corruption.

"Corruption among law enforcement agency personnel
continues to be a major impediment to cooperative
investigations. Law enforcement initiatives appear to
have had a slight, if any, impact on drug transportation
and distribution organizations." Jane C. Maxwell,
Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, June 1996.

In the past 25 years, use of addictive illegal
drugs has not changed, but addictive use of nicotine
has been cut in half without sending one person to
prison or vowing to stop the drug at its source.
Tobacco is legal with regulations. Think about it.

Americans are quick to recognize the folly of
forcing a legal drug into an illicit market through
prohibition. It is time to acknowledge the sensible
act of forcing illegal drugs out of the illicit
market through legalization. Ask your elected officials
to think about that too.

John F. Wilson
Waco