DRUG PROHIBITION

Thank you for publishing my letter: "Re-legalizing Drugs," July 2, and I
would like to respond to Charlie Dudley who criticized my letter ("Reality
Check" July 12).

I'd like to explain to Dudley why drug-related crime would be substantially
lower if all types of drugs were re-legalized. Mainly because the prices
for the drugs would be substantially lower.

When pure pharmaceutical-grade Bayer heroin was legally sold for about the
same price as Bayer aspirin, drug addicts didn't have to rob, steal or
commit acts of prostitution to obtain their drug or drugs of choice because
the drugs were cheap. Now aspirin sells for about 2 cents a dose, but
heroin sells for $20 to $50 a dose because of prohibition.

Notice that liquor sellers and producers are no longer settling their
disputes with each other with gun battles in the streets like they did 80
years ago or like drug dealers are doing now. That's because liquor is now
legal but recreational drugs are not.

Liquor sellers can settle their disputes with each other with lawsuits.

Drug dealers cannot.

Notice that we have zero "coffee-related crime." That's because coffee is
legal. However, if we criminalized coffee, this situation would soon change.

If coffee were criminalized we would soon have "coffee-related crime,"
coffee dealers, coffee lords, coffee cartels and politicians vowing to
protect our children from the evils of coffee.

Kirk Muse, Mesa, AZ