WAYS TO COMBAT DRUG USE

There are two possible approaches to combating illegal drug use.

If people are willing to pay for something, then someone else will be
willing to supply it almost no matter how bad, whether gambling,
drugs, pornography, slavery, etc.

Imprisoning millions of illegal drug users is not practical. However,
one could suspend their driver's licenses. One certainly does not
want drug users driving.

If they were forced to find a new way to get to work or find a new
job, they might realize the criminality of their actions and get help.

Just because something is wrong does not mean it should be illegal.
Drug use, like gambling, is a vice where the goal is to limit
damaging effects on people's lives and on society.

Legalization would get the pushers and gangsters out of the drug
business. Every effort would still have to be made to discourage drug
use. It would have to be illegal to promote drug use in any way and
certainly illegal to give away free samples.

One of the best arguments against legalizing drugs is that
government, eager for more tax revenue, is now promoting gambling,
once an illegal vice.

- -- Mark Holmboe

Rockford