LEGALIZING DRUGS WOULD REDUCE HARM

I'm writing about Alan Randell's outstanding letter: "Legal drugs the
answer" (May 25).

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.

However, doing so would substantially reduce the crime rate and
increase public safety.

Will we ever be able to eliminate our drug problems? No. However, we
can substantially reduce the harm caused by our now illegal drugs.

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 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, Arizona