STAND AGAINST WHAT? STANDING IS THE PROBLEM

To the editor:

RE: Stand Against Drugs Rallies Citizens Saturday (KLTW, Oct. 5). If Pastor
Gorham believes that getting a group of people to parade through town to
shake their fists at drug dealers and kiss-up to cops is the solution to his
area's drug problem, he is painfully misguided.

As a former user himself, he should know that prohibition and wasted police
efforts are exactly what has caused this mess. Prohibition is the problem,
not the solution.

If drugs were regulated, we wouldn't see creepy losers hanging out on street
corners offering crack and heroin to anyone of any age who walks by, we
would see licensed establishments where only adult users would be allowed to
enter, if they chose to.

Do we see people offering tobacco and alcohol on street corners?

If Pastor Gorham were to advocate regulation, he and his kind could avoid
the places where drugs are sold, because they would be in licensed
establishments instead of on street corners.

If people go to a bar, then go out in public and make trouble (violence,
driving, etc.) for others, they get into trouble.

The same should happen with any drug.

If you smoke crack (or shoot heroin, or smoke pot, or drink alcohol) and
then go cause trouble, you go to jail. If you smoke crack (or shoot heroin,
or smoke pot, or drink alcohol) and then go home without a fuss, no problem.

He continues, "The community has to come together to say 'we don't want this
stuff here.'" Maybe he, and many others don't want it, but clearly there is
a high demand for all of these substances. I don't drink alcohol, so I never
go to bars. If Pastor Gorham doesn't want to use drugs, then he could avoid
the places where drugs are sold.

Pastor Gorham tells people "every dollar from it goes back to organized
crime."

He is right. And the best way to thwart organized crime is to take away
their major commodities, and give them to the people to regulate. Just like
when alcohol went from "prohibition" to "regulation", the problems decreased
considerably, and "bootleggers" went out of business.

It looks to me like Pastor Gorham advocates even more prohibition. Well he
should look at the evidence. If prohibition were going to work, it would
have worked by now.

Russell Barth

Ottawa