'WAR ON DRUGS' CAN'T DEFEAT LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND

Re your thoughtful May 14 editorial, "War on Drugs": The war on drugs
was lost before it began.

No matter how much money we throw down the drug war rat hole, we will
never be able to nullify the immutable law of supply and demand.

As long as people want recreational drugs and are willing to pay a
substantial price for them, somebody will produce these drugs and
somebody else will get them to the willing buyers.

This we can guarantee.

And almost all of our so-called drug-related crime is caused by our
drug prohibition policies -- not the drugs themselves.

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 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, Ariz.