PROHIBITING DRUG USE ONLY DRIVES IT UNDERGROUND

Re: "Legalization needs study" (Editorial, Feb. 8). I'm very impressed that
your paper
has the courage and intellectual honesty to recognize that legalization of
drugs must be
given fair consideration. For many people, it is not easy to see that
supporting
legalization does not mean liking drugs.
It is even harder for people to accept the bitter truth: Our current policy
of
prohibition actually promotes drug use and creates violent crime.

Prohibition cannot do anything else. It gives organized crime a total
monopoly over the drug business, and then vastly inflates the profits.

These profits not only create a huge incentive to sell as much as
possible and create as many addicts as possible, but they also make
criminals powerful and law enforcers corrupt.

Steve Finlay, volunteer for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Burnaby