LEGALIZING DRUGS HAS LOWERED ADDICTION

I'm writing about the April 4 letter "Bad things will happen if
marijuana is legalized."

In the Netherlands, where marijuana has been quasi-legal for several
decades, the Dutch use marijuana at less than half the rate that
Americans do. And they use heroin at less than a third of the rate
that Americans do. (See www.drugwarfacts.org/

thenethe.htm.)

In 2001, Portugal abolished all criminal penalties for personal
possession of all drugs. Have the rates of drug use and abuse
skyrocketed in Portugal? No, they have fallen.

In 1994, Switzerland started an experimental program to sell heroin
addicts heroin at very low cost or even give it to the addicts who
couldn't afford it. In 2008, 68 percent of the Swiss voted to make the
program permanent. Have Swiss heroin addiction rates skyrocketed? No,

they have fallen dramatically. So has their overall crime
rate.

So, claims that if marijuana is legalized drug use and abuse would
skyrocket are totally bogus.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.