LEGALIZING DRUGS WON'T REDUCE CRIME

There was a recent letter from San Francisco about legalizing drugs.
Although the writer had many facts in his letter to tweak our interest, he
gave little thought to what would happen if he gets his wishes.

Around the turn of the last century, drugs were legalized in an Asian area.
A member of the military who lived through this period commented that they
had lost one entire generation because of their foolishness.

People who use drugs are not functional. They would not be able to enter
the workplace, no matter how much they argue that they could do so. So what
we would have would be larger numbers of addicts that could not pay for
their own food and housing, let alone their very own legal, regulated drugs.

For those that were up in arms about welfare, consider welfare for addicts.

I doubt seriously that crime will fall that much, because all kinds of
theft will increase, and people who are not stable, on drugs, will be involved.

We might slow down gang warfare, but I doubt that also. Without addressing
the social reasons for the existence of gangs, they will still be out
there, only involved in other more profitable ventures. The nature of the
aggressors will not change. They will simply kill for other reasons.

We, as a nation, must never make the mistake of thinking legalization of
drugs will cure our problems. It won't.

Lila Hosey

Pedro, Ohio