LETTER OF THE WEEK

LEGALIZING DRUGS MIGHT BE GOOD FOR OUR SOCIETY

By Calvin C. Acuff, M.D.

I was a youngster when Franklin Roosevelt ran for president
promising, among other things, to repeal Prohibition. My parents
didn't want alcohol to be legalized. However, since then I have
realized Prohibition was a tremendous idea, but one that didn't work
because people were determined to drink and they got liquor from
bootleggers, moonshiners or imported by Joe Kennedy ( making him
fabulously wealthy ). Today alcohol is freely available and is
controlled fairly well and taxed.

I notice that people who want to smoke pot, drink alcohol and use
other drugs are going to get them one way or another. The drug
dealers are the ones benefitting by keeping them illegal while the
government could tax these drugs and the dealers would lose their
source of income.

We have spent multiple billions on the drug war and we are no closer
to winning than we were 20 years ago. There is the saying that to
repeat the same action over and over and expect a different result is
a sure sign of stupidity. If we learned something from how we dealt
with alcohol, why not apply it to other drugs?

One of the immediate benefits we would see is that overcrowding of
prisons would end or at least greatly decrease. Lest anyone think I'm
advocating the use of alcohol and other drugs, let me explain. During
my 40 years of medical practice, I saw many people ruin their lives
and destroy their brains. I have never seen one person who was better
in any way from using alcohol and other drugs. Even one drink impairs
one's judgment and functional ability. I have never smoked, tasted
alcohol or used any illegal drug because there is not one benefit in
any of them.

I believe the only solution is to legalize and control drugs as we
have alcohol. People who are determined to use drugs will get them
one way or another.

Calvin C. Acuff, M.D.

Pubdate: Thu, 11 Dec 2008

Source: Morganton News Herald, The (NC)