LEGALIZE BLACK-MARKET DRUGS

Re: Drug prohibition doesn't work, Aug. 28.

I'm writing about Jeremy Loome's outstanding column.

If Canada and the United States re-legalized all our illegal drugs so
that they could be sold by licenced and regulated businesses for
pennies per dose, would this eliminate our drug problems? No.

However, doing so would dramatically reduce our crime rate and
dramatically increase public safety.

Will we ever be able to eliminate our drug problems? No.

However, we can substantially reduce the harm caused by our illegal
drugs. Regulated and controlled drugs would be of known purity, known
potency and known quality -- which would make them very much safer
than today's black-market drugs.

But what message would we send to children if we legalized all
illegal drugs so they could be sold in licenced, regulated and taxed
business establishments?

The same message we send to children today when we allow products
such as alcohol and tobacco to be sold in licenced, regulated and
taxed business establishments.

A free country's government cannot protect its adult citizens from
themselves. A free country's government has no right to attempt to do so.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

(They already do just that in many areas.)