OUR UNWINNABLE WAR - AGAINST DRUGS

Legalizing the short list of currently illicit drugs will move the
vast majority of distribution into licensed and regulated settings.
Licensed drug dealers will not resolve business disputes with
violence against rivals, nor will customers resolve complaints about
service with gunfire directed at their suppliers. Most important,
legal drug dealers will not knowingly market drugs to minor age children.

An illegal network cannot compete with a licensed, regulated
free-market system of distribution. That's the common sense approach
we've applied the past 70-plus years for the riskiest drugs --
alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals.

Legalizing drugs will not solve all the very real problems we have
that are the byproducts of drug abuse. But it will greatly inhibit
underage access and virtually eliminate all violence affiliated with
the current illegal market.

Jack A. Cole

Executive Director

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Medford, Mass.