MAKING DRUGS LEGAL MAKES THEM SAFER

Major kudos to Jeremy Oehlert for his outstanding Jan. 17 column
"Winning the drug peace."

I'd like to add that when all types of drugs - including recreational
drugs - were legally available at grocery stores and pharmacies with
no questions asked, deaths from recreational drugs were rare.

That's because the drugs were of known quality, known purity and known
potency. That's opposite of the bootleg, black market drugs of today.
And when drugs were legal, the term "drug-related crime" didn't exist.
Neither did drug lords, drug cartels or drug dealers as we know them
today.

Today nobody dies or goes blind from "bathtub gin" as they did when
alcohol was illegal.

And if we relegalized all types of recreational drugs and sold them in
licensed business establishments, almost nobody would die from
recreational drugs.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.