DRUGS - EVIDENCE ABOUNDS

Dear Editor,

Ken Marsh is simply mistaken when he assumes there is no evidence that
alcohol prohibition increased crime and violence [Legalization results
without proof, Oct. 1 Letters to the Editor, Langley Advance News].

He can find a chart of the homicide rates in the United States from
1900 to 1990 at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/graphs/10.htm.
It is clear that homicides rose dramatically with the start of alcohol
prohibition, and then dropped just as dramatically when prohibition
ended.

Among other things, alcohol prohibition produced the biggest teen
drinking epidemic ever seen in the U.S.

If he wants to know whether legalization or decriminalization is a
good idea, he can find the full text of most of the major studies of
the subject over the past 100 years at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer,
under Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy. They all concluded that
the drug laws were based on ignorance and nonsense, and should have
been repealed long ago because they do more harm than good.

The problem is not lack of evidence of what works. The problem is that
people like Ken Marsh have never read it.

Clifford Schaffer,

Agua Dulce, California, USA