I'm writing about your front page story: "Task force brings in 31 in
gang, meth bust" (June 12.)

Drugs and gangs. Gangs and drugs. They seem to go hand-in-hand.

From 1920 to 1933 alcohol and gangs went hand-in-hand. Back then
alcohol was completely un-regulated, un-taxed and controlled by
criminal gangs--just like meth and other recreational drugs are today.

If meth were legally available in local pharmacies for pennies per
dose, would criminals gangs be involved with meth? No. Would meth
users be constantly seeking new meth users to pay for their habit? No.

If we re-legalized all our illegal drugs so that they could be sold
by licensed and regulated businesses for pennies per dose, would this
eliminate our drug problems? No. Will we ever be able to eliminate
our drug problems? No. However, doing so would substantially reduce
the crime rate and increase public safety.

Regulated and controlled drugs would be of known purity, known
potency and known quality--which would make them very much safer than
today's black-market drugs.

But what message would we send to children if we re-legalized all
illegal drugs so they could be sold in licensed, regulated and taxed
business establishments? The same message we send to children today
when we allow products such as alcohol and tobacco to be sold in
licensed, regulated and taxed business establishments.

A free country's government cannot protect its adult citizens from
themselves. A free country's government has no right to attempt to do so.

Kirk Muse

Mesa