PROHIBITION OF DRUGS CAUSES VIOLENT CRIME

I'm writing about your thoughtful editorial, "Rising homicide rates
demand more attention" (Jan. 6). I'd like to add that most murders
nationwide attributed to drugs or gangs are caused by our government's
policy of drug prohibition.

Eighty years ago, liquor dealers settled their disputes with each
other the same way drug dealers do today - with violence.

Many prison wardens have said that 70 to 80 percent of all violent
crime is drug-related. Actually, almost 100 percent of our so-called
drug-related crime is drug criminalization-caused crime.

Ninety years ago, when all types of recreational drugs were legally
sold in local pharmacies for pennies per dose, the term "drug-related
crime" didn't exist. Neither did drug lords, drug cartels or drug
dealers as we know them today.

If we re-legalized all types of recreational drugs and made them
available in local pharmacies for pennies per dose, our violent crime
would be reduced by at least 70 percent.

Therefore, we would need far fewer law-enforcement personnel, far
fewer prisons, far fewer prison guards and no prison builders.

Therefore, law enforcement, prison guards and prison builders have a
vested interest in maintaining the status quo of drug
prohibition.

Therefore, taxpayers have a vested interest in changing the status quo
of drug prohibition.

KIRK MUSE