DRUGS: LEGALIZATION THE ANSWER

Dear Editor,

If only there were some regulated retail outlet where adults could buy
and use drugs instead of using the park, then many of the problems
[Drugs take over City park, Sept. 17, Langley Advance News] would
solve themselves.

But no, the RCMP keep up the old school mantras of "harsher penalties"
and "bigger budgets."

The laws need to change so that drugs of all kinds can be regulated
for use by responsible adults and taxed to pay for healthcare and education.

All the evidence shows that crime and violence would decrease, much as
what happened when alcohol prohibition ended.

The Netherlands don't have these problems, because marijuana is sold
in coffee shops, to adults. They also have a much lower number of drug
users, and a lower crime rate.

The alternative to legalization is higher taxes, more police funding,
more jails and courthouses built instead of hospitals and schools, and
who knows how many more years of a completely failed and corrupt drug
war.

Let's face it, if prohibition was going to work, it would have worked
by now.

Russell Barth,

Ottawa