REGULATING DISTRIBUTION OF DRUGS WOULD HIT POCKETBOOKS OF DRUG CARTELS

I want to thank Ron Maloney for addressing the problem of drug
prohibition.

For more than 90 years this "drug war" has wrought havoc on our
communities, our nation and indeed the whole world. We have invested
more than half a trillion US tax dollars for absolutely zero results.
Despite the arrest of tens of millions of our fellow citizens for
baggies of powders, flowers and pills, drugs are cheaper, purer and
more freely available to our children than ever before.

Mr. Maloney, speaking of law enforcement, nailed it when he wrote: "They
snipe at one another and there are casualties on both sides, but nothing
ever really changes." It was Albert Einstein who summed this situation up
best: "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting
different results."

Maloney wrote that: "Police estimate that as much as 90 percent of all
crimes are at least tangentially related to substance abuse." Despite
our efforts, aspirin and Tylenol still kill more people each year than
all the products made by unprofessional, black market "chemists" and
most of the deaths attributed to "drug war" result from the violence
of prohibition, not the use of the drugs themselves.

The day we regulate the distribution of these "illegal" drugs is the
day we evaporate the worth of Osama bin Laden's opium stash, is the
day we destroy the Colombian drug cartels, is the day we eliminate the
reasons for which most violent street gangs exist, is the day we will
have lots of room in prison, (as much as 90% more), for any street
corner vendors who would sell drugs to our children, is the day we
basically eliminate drug overdose deaths and is the day we begin to
restore respect for law enforcement and the judicial system which have
become tainted by the enormous sums of black market payoffs.

Zealotry in promulgating eternal drug war seems never to be
challenged, yet challenge is necessary; open discussion is paramount
to ending this war on our own people. This prohibition of certain
potions is quite simply the modern equivalent of the Salem witchcraft
trials. Should we not judge people by their actions rather than the
plant products found in their pockets?

Maloney's final quote from Waldrip: "No matter what you do, what it
ultimately boils down to is personal responsibility,"

To which I can only say, "Amen".

DEAN BECKER

Houston, TX