MONEY SHOULD BE SPENT ON HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS TO DRUGS NOT CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Goderich Signal-Star - Dear Editor:

Thanks for publishing this letter by Robert Sharpe.

Neither my country, nor yours, can endure another 80 years of a failed
policy such as our drug war.

Many citizens don't realize how many of our problems are related to
prohibition and not the drugs themselves. Not to discount the problems
experienced by addicts.

The fact is that the majority of drug users don't have any problems until
the criminal justice system gets involved.

The crime, corruption, death and disease that are so rampant in our nation
are due to prohibition, not the drugs themselves.

Why do you think current and past presidents, along with many other
politicians and other prominent members of society, have admitted to using
some of the very substances that are now criminalized?

Because humans are naturally inclined to alter their state of mind.

Criminalizing such behavior, especially by adults, will only result in what
we are faced with today.

If you go back to the 1920's you can see people making some of the same
statements about alcohol.

They were going to enact prohibition to save us all from the evil liquor.

And what were the results of alcohol prohibition? Crime, corruption, death
and disease.

So here we are in the year 2004 watching "Prohibition Part II".

Personally, I've seen enough. I don't want my children to have to endure
another 80 years of a failed drug war that takes from education to build
more prisons and fund drug task forces.

I urge all citizens to contact their representatives and demand that our
resources be used on social and healthcare solutions for those who suffer
from drug addiction, not criminal justice solutions that only leave the
user and society in a disastrous state.

Respectfully submitted for publication,

Scott Russ

Resident Of The Most Incarcerated State In The US Thanks To The Drug War

Baton Rouge, LA