GEORGE CHUVALO IS MISTAKEN

Dear Editor,

George was a courageous and skillful boxer, but his take on the
tragic heroin induced deaths of his sons is tragically wrong. Simply
urging kids to "just say no" to drugs just doesn't work and besides,
it was drug prohibition that killed his sons, not the drug itself.

Prohibition works in two ways to harm users. First, the drugs are
often adulterated because of prohibition, so that, even though the
1973 LeDain Commission concluded, "There appears to be little
permanent physiological damage from chronic use of pure opiate
narcotics," prohibition kills users by denying them access to
unadulterated drugs. History provides confirmation of this process
when we recall that the prohibition of alcohol poisoned thousands by
denying them access to unadulterated alcohol. My 19-year-old son,
Peter, died in 1993 shortly after ingesting some street heroin.

Second, the price charged by dealers, are much higher than they would
be if the drugs were legally available at the corner store because
the dealer has to factor in the possibility of getting caught by the police.

How sad to see that George Chuvalo has been bamboozled into
supporting the very laws that killed his sons, the failed crusade of
drug prohibition.

Alan Randell

Victoria, B.C.