DRUG USE DECLINES WITH LEGALIZATION

Regarding the guest editorial, "Legalizing drugs wrong answer,"
printed Sept. 25, it should be expected that someone like the writer
who makes his living from the status quo of drug prohibition would
want to keep the status quo of drug prohibition.

Will re-legalizing drugs create more drug users? No.

In the 1960s Great Britain had fewer than 10,000 heroin addicts. Now
it has more than 300,000 heroin addicts. What changed? The law. Up
until 1971 they gave free heroin to the addicts. In 1971, with
political pressure from the Nixon administration, Great Britain
criminalized heroin possession and use. Now British heroin addicts
rob, steal and recruit new heroin users to pay for their addiction.

With legalization and regulation, drug use will probably go down
because users would have no financial incentive to recruit new users.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.