PROHIBITION LEADS TO PROFITABLE PRODUCTS

To the Editor:

I'm writing about the thoughtful letter from Mett Ausley, Jr., MD."METH ON
THE RISE" (10-14-03). I'd like to add that there's one law, if passed by
Congress, that would completely put the illegal meth labs out of business
overnight.

That would be a law making pharmaceutical grade amphetamines legally
available in local pharmacies for pennies per dose. 90 years ago when all
types of recreational drugs were legally available in local pharmacies for
pennies per dose, we didn't have clandestine drug labs or drug related
crime. And drug dealers, as we know them today, didn't exist.

Increasing law enforcement efforts will only make the product more
profitable. No product can be eliminated by making it more profitable.
Oklahoma and Missouri have some of the toughest anti-meth laws in the
country, yet meth use and production is at record levels in Oklahoma,
Missouri and dozens of other states.

Prohibition doesn't work. It never has and never will, except to assure
full employment for those doing the prohibiting. When alcohol prohibition
ended in 1933, 100 percent of the "bathtub gin" producers went out of
business for economic reasons and they have stayed out of the business for
economic reasons.

The U. S. murder rate also declined for 10 consecutive years. Have we
learned any lessons?

Not yet.

Kirk Muse