WE'VE LOST THE WAR ON DRUGS

I'm writing about Heather Hartsell's outstanding story: "Ex-police
officer says war on drugs not working" (7-23-07).

The war on drugs was lost before it began.

No matter how much money we throw down the drug war rat hole, we will
never be able to nullify the immutable law of supply and demand.

As long as people want recreational drugs and are willing to pay a
substantial price for them, somebody will produce these drugs and
somebody will get them to the willing buyers.

This we can guarantee.

If we re-legalized all our illegal drugs so that they can 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 rate 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 very 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, Ariz.