LEGALIZING DRUGS WILL CURB CRIME

Thank you for publishing the outstanding Sept. 14 letter "War on drugs is a
failure."

I'd like to add that our phony, so-called war on drugs has corrupted all
levels of our government, from the police on the beat to the highest levels
of our government, just as alcohol prohibition did during our
great-grandfathers' era known as the "Noble Experiment."

Alcohol prohibition was terminated, not because we decided alcohol wasn't
so bad after all, but because of the crime and corruption prohibition caused.

Prohibiting a desired consumer product, any consumer product, does not
reduce or eliminate the demand for the product. It just turns the
distribution of the desired product over to criminals and then the product
becomes untaxed and unregulated.

Notice that we have almost no tobacco-related crime. That would soon change
if we removed tobacco from the legitimate market and criminalized it.
Tobacco would then be untaxed, unregulated and controlled by criminal gangs
- - just as recreational drugs are today.

When alcohol prohibition was terminated in 1933, the U.S. murder rate
declined for 10 consecutive years. Have we learned any lessons?

Not yet.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Arizona