LEGALIZE DRUGS

Re: Editorial about 14th Street cleanup, the drug war
causes addiction and prostitution to be far worse than
they would be if these drugs had been left alone.

My grandparents' generation learned during alcohol prohibition of the
1920s that driving a drug underground causes more societal damage than
it prevents. It is a difficult lesson for us because we cannot
remember life before drug prohibition, as they could for the drug alcohol.

The turning point in alcohol prohibition came when women began to
change sides. In April 1930, WONPR (Women's Organization for National
Prohibition Reform) endorsed a unanimous resolution that read in part:
". . . We are convinced that National Prohibition, wrong in principle,
has been equally disastrous in consequences in the hypocrisy, the
corruption, the tragic loss of life and the appalling increase of
crime which have attended the abortive attempt to enforce it; in the
shocking effect it has had upon the youth of the nation; in the
impairment of constitutional guarantees of individual rights; in the
weakening of the sense of solidarity between the citizen and the
government which is the only sure basis of a country's strength."

These words fit today's policy of drug prohibition. Tobacco is as
addictive as the most addictive illegal drug, and alcohol is as
intoxicating as the most intoxicating illegal drug. But neither of
these drugs is sold on the street because there is no profit, and very
few women prostitute themselves for them. It is fine to clean up 14th
Street, but also consider that the only permanent solution is to take
these drugs off the street the only way possible: legalize them.

JOHN CHASE

Palm Harbor