READERS URGE FORWARD-THINKING SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEMS OF DRUG ABUSE

It appears Chief Superintendent Derek Ogden has learned nothing from
the failed drug policies that Canada and the U.S. have pursued for
more than half a century. Billions of dollars have been spent,
leaving us with an illegal international trade in drugs, extensive
criminal activity and lost lives. This war has been lost. Are we the
last to learn from our failed policies?

It is time to cooperate with some of our European friends by
rejecting the purely punitive approach, and experimenting with a
legalized distribution system.

There will always be people pursuing mind-altering drugs. The failure
of Prohibition to stop alcohol use should be a lesson to us. Take the
profit out of the sale of drugs, and distribute them legally. The
cost of doing otherwise is too great.

We will always have criminals, but the incentive will be far less
when the profits are substantially less. We need new strategies, not
the same failed policies. The cost in lost lives and criminal
activity is just too great.

George T. H. Fuller

Vancouver