WE MUST DECRIMINALIZE DRUG USE

Isn't it time to take away the power base of the drug cartels by
decriminalizing drug use? Our national experiment with Prohibition
virtually created the Mafia and other organized crime. These same
crime organizations now feed off of U.S. drug abuse.

Drug addiction fuels a host of society ills: robbery, prostitution,
gangs, the spread of infectious diseases, etc. The money drug users
give to dealers fuels the cartel wars, and that violence is rapidly
spreading into the American heartland, no longer just a border problem.

I do not deny that drug addiction is inherently bad. I am saying that
our current approach hasn't worked, isn't working and shows no promise
of ever working. The drug busts and police efforts may weaken, even
remove, one cartel, but the vacuum is soon filled by others. Stop the
insanity. Decriminalize, regulate, then rehabilitate. -

Leonard R. Escudero

Glendale