ADDICTION PROBLEMS WON'T GO AWAY BUT LEGALIZING DRUGS WILL CUT CRIME

To the editor:

I'm writing about Bruce Symington's outstanding letter: "Drug
crackdowns increase theft," Aug. 10.

If Canada and the U.S. legalized all our illegal drugs so that they
could be sold by licensed and regulated businesses for pennies per
dose, would this eliminate our drug problems? No.

However, doing so would dramatically reduce our crime rates 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 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 licensed, 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 licensed, 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, Arizona