LEGAL, QUALITY-CONTROLLED DRUGS WOULD SAVE LIVES

Re: Deaths from crystal meth jump at 'frightening' rate in B.C., March 16

I see that prohibition is working as well as it always has.

Nearly all the harm done to users and non-users alike by illegal drugs
is because the drugs are prohibited. Thousands were poisoned by
adulterated booze during Prohibition and thousands more are dying
today because of adulterated drugs, an aspect of government policy my
wife and I became well acquainted with when our 19-year-old son,
Peter, died shortly after ingesting some street heroin in 1993. Drug
prohibition encourages crime too, much like Al Capone rose to power
after alcohol was banned.

Let us never forget that drug prohibition is racist in origin. It
began almost a century ago when the drugs used by certain non-white
minorities (blacks, Chinese, Mexicans) were banned ostensibly to
protect virtuous, white, Christian women from being seduced.

Today, the police are happy to make use of this legislation to control
and harass those whose lifestyle or skin colour offends them.

The best way to reduce the harm and heartbreak of illegal drugs is to
end drug prohibition. Let's legalize all drugs and remove the
propaganda and the police from the equation. Then have the drugs
manufactured by knowledgeable, competent organizations that will
supply cheap, quality-tested drugs of known purity and potency and
that, in order to avoid legal liability, will impart factual drug
information to us and our children.

Alan Randell

Victoria