THE 'WAR ON DRUGS' IS A FAILURE

I believe James Friedlander's proposal to legalize, regulate and
control drugs is the correct course of action ("A modest proposal:
Should we legalize drugs?" commentary, Oct. 8). Drug prohibition
doesn't work any better than alcohol prohibition did. After 40 years
and a trillion-dollars worth of Nixon's "war on drugs," drugs are
cheaper, more potent and more available than ever.

We also get the added bonus of ever-increasing prohibition-related
violence as drug dealers fight over the market. Drug dealers don't
kill each other, and innocent bystanders, because they are high any
more than Al Capone killed rival bootleggers because he was drunk.
It's the money.

Prohibition facilitates drug sales to kids. Under prohibition,
criminals decide what gets sold, where and to whom. A drug dealer
doesn't check age limits. All he wants to see is the money.
Prohibition provides no impediment to drug purchases by kids. That's
why teens regularly report that marijuana is easier to get than alcohol.

A growing number of law enforcement personnel, having witnessed
firsthand the ineffectiveness and the social destruction caused by
prohibition, are calling for an end to drug prohibition and for legal
regulated sale of drugs. The organization Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition (www.leap.cc), composed of several thousand current and
former law enforcement professionals, may be the leader of this
growing voice. Look at its website, watch their videos and read their
articles before you dismiss the idea of ending drug prohibition and
establishing legalized regulated sale.

Decide whom you want selling drugs in Maine. If you want criminals to
continue selling drugs of unknown purity to anybody with money
wherever and whenever they choose, stay with drug prohibition. If you
want licensing and zoning boards to decide where drugs can be sold,
the hours they can be sold and to whom, we need to move to legal
regulated sale.

It's going to be one or the other.

The desirable third option, no drugs, isn't reality. The best we can
do is to adopt a policy that ensures they do minimum damage -- and
prohibition isn't it.

Steve Wellcome

Steve Wellcome lives in Brunswick.