LAWS RESPONSIBLE FOR DRUG MARKETS AND MISERY

How long is this nonsense going to last? Police have been cracking down on
drug dealers for more than 60 years, and the problem keeps growing. It is
the very laws the police enforce that create the market, the profits and
the misery. Addiction is not desirable, but the worst effects (crime,
prostitution, prison) are because of the law, not because of addiction per se.

I'm fed up seeing my tax dollars squandered to support the price of drugs
and, thereby, the wealth of criminal gangs, while addicts go untreated. The
way to eliminate illicit drug dealers is to legalize, license, regulate and
tax the production and sale of recreational drugs.

The place to draw the line is between true crimes such as driving while
impaired, whether from drugs, alcohol or fatigue, and phoney crimes such as
smoking a joint.

The government is not our parent. Its role is neither to condone nor to
condemn drug use, but to provide the legal structure within which adult
citizens can indulge the vices of our choice in a peaceful, orderly fashion.

Elizabeth Woods

Victoria