PROHIBITION ONLY WAY TO KEEP CONTROL

Regarding the Wednesday letter, "Legalizing use best way to manage
it":

"Our law enforcement agencies cannot solve the problems created by
prohibition. We must find another way." While I agree with this
statement, the writer's letter is preposterous at best. Law
enforcement alone has never been able to significantly stem the tide
of smuggled and locally manufactured contraband in the United States.
The law of supply and demand will conquer all.

If you accept that we cannot effectively ban the use of illicit drugs
by Americans, what makes you think we can "manage" their use to adults
only? Alcohol and tobacco are perfect examples of "managed" drugs.
Both are available openly and freely to enterprising juveniles willing
to ask a simple question, "Hey mister/lady, will you buy something for
me?" It happens every day in our communities across this nation. How
can we conceivably think that we could manage "through strict
regulation and control" marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines
or Oxycontin, etc., any better? Prohibition is a strict regulation and
control method. Since it doesn't work perfectly, should we throw it
out for less restrictive measures?

Very few law enforcement officers support this theory of controlled
regulation proposed by LEAP. Multiple studies show that while
prohibition doesn't work perfectly, the reality is that less of our
youth use drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines
or oxycontin than drugs managed "through strict regulation and
control" such as alcohol and tobacco. The only possible advantage to
the writer's proposal is increased tax revenue. Unfortunately, this
will likely be more than offset by lost production/wages and state
paid medical expenses for abusers of these highly addictive drugs.

Law enforcement alone has never and will never be the answer to
addiction. It will require a wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary approach
to determine and resolve issues surrounding drug abusers' reasons for
self-medicating in the first place.

Steve Haley

Everett