DON'T FOLLOW US--WE'RE LOST

Thank you for publishing Robert Sharpe's outstanding letter: "HEROIN
TRIALS WORKING (7-02-03). I'd like to add that when all types of
recreational drugs were legally available in local United States
pharmacies for pennies per dose, the term "drug related crime" didn't
exist. Neither did drug lords nor drug cartels.

These were all created by our drug criminalization policies. Not
drugs.

When pure pharmaceutical grade Bayer heroin was legally available in
local pharmacies for about the same price as Bayer aspirin, deaths
from recreational drugs were very rare.

That's because the drugs were of known quality, known purity and known
potency. Now deaths from drugs are common because the drugs are
untaxed, unregulated and controlled by criminal gangs.

My advice to South Africa and the rest of the world is to carefully
observe U. S. drug policy--then do the opposite.

Don't follow us--we're lost.

Kirk Muse,

Mesa, AZ U. S. A.