PHELPS INHALED-THAT WAS THE POINT

In response to the Dallas Morning News editorial "Phelps, pot and
dealing with the consequences" published in Thursday's Collegiate
Times, I wish to provide the missing link between "pot smokers like
Michael Phelps" and "innocent Mexicans killed by drug cartels" that
the editorial board chose to leave absent.

At Virginia Tech's Public Forum on Alcohol and Other Drug Policies
last October, a cadet student posited that I and all the students who
advocate for change of our Zero Tolerance drug policy are not proud
to be Hokies. While I respect that he came forward and shared his
views, I cannot help but think that he and the Dallas Morning News
editor are missing the same common point: that policies can be
improved and that our current drug policies are broken.

When I purchase my morning cup of coffee -- which usually turns into
four to six cups with free-refills -- I sometimes tease the barista
that she is my drug-dealer. Sometimes she plays along and says,
"Yeah, that's right, show me the money."

This is satire because she really is my drug dealer; coffee really is
a drug, and I really am addicted to it. Yet, if the DEA came in and
busted the ABP cart, would I stop drinking coffee? No. I would
purchase it from one of the other five coffee shops on campus or walk
a block downtown.

Similarly, if one drug cartel is busted, then another will fill the
demand; and if Michael Phelps' pot dealer is busted, then he will buy
drugs elsewhere.

The editorial board of the Dallas Morning News writes, "The fates (of
Michael Phelps using pot and innocent Mexicans killed by drug
cartels) are not easily separated," yet the author takes
extraordinary lengths to do so by not realizing the context of prohibition.

At Virginia Tech alone, more than 9,000 current students have
reported using marijuana. To expect that all Americans will suddenly
raise their consumer consciousness and halt their use for the sake of
moral opposition to the brutality done by drug cartels is simply not practical.

Meanwhile, Texas state legislators recently warned the city council
of El Paso, Texas, that its funding would be cut off if it did not
reverse its unanimous vote calling for national debate on drug
legalization, a resolution in support of their violence-ridden,
border-city Ciudad Juarez.

This proves the undemocratic lengths our politicians are willing to
take to silence the growing support for alternatives to drug prohibition.

Kris Reinertson

Senior,

sociology and political science