LEGALIZING DRUGS WOULD BE A BAD IDEA

I must disagree with guest columnist Jim Gierich's opinion on the
legalization of drugs and hope the SouthtownStar editors do share it.

Our nation has grown and matured since the Roaring '20s and the days
of Al Capone. We must realize that prohibition does not keep people
addicted, as Gierich states, but availability and curiosity get people
started and possibly addicted.

Contrary to Gierich, prohibition is the right of the government to
regulate and control illicit drugs and their movement across states
lines. Although it has been stated that most drug users are white,
that may be because the majority of the U.S. population is white. And
the U.S. Department of Health has shown that nearly 40 percent of
whites, 33 percent of blacks, 33 percent of American Indians and a
quarter of all Hispanics have used drugs sometime in their lives.
However, the non-whites admit to using drugs within the past month or
the past year. The most common users fall into the 18- to 25- and the
12- to 16-year-old age groups.

Prohibition is not causing heroin overdose deaths, corruption and
school dropouts. Illegal drug use is. If Gierich has a family, I
cannot imagine he wants his children and grandchildren experimenting
with drugs or being the victim of sexual abuse by someone passing them
a date rape drug.

Young people have enough pressure dealing with underage drinking,
especially binge drinking. We do not need to ask the families of
people killed in car accidents caused by drunk drivers their opinion
of legalizing drugs. Nor do we need to poll the families with fathers
who have lost their jobs, savings and homes from cocaine abuse or
whose mothers buy heroin rather than food and clothing.

We certainly do not need to import another product from an
impoverished country that will be exempt from tariffs and import
duties only to be taxed at the federal, state, county and local level,
and then distributed to create more addicts.

Thomas Dignan Sr.

Oak Lawn