DRUG WAR HAS FAILED

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

The headline for Joe Dombroski's Commentary column says, "Record Shows That
Drug Legalization Is No Solution." He should be honest enough to admit that
more than 60 years of failed experience show that drug illegalization is
also no solution.

Perhaps his perspective is flawed. It is his agency, after all, that
recently terrorized a 14-year-old girl and shot her in the back of the
head; it is his czar who went to Amsterdam and proceeded to lie about the
crime and drug-use statistics of that country, forcing a retraction; and it
is his agency that recently sent a letter that was full of distortions and
outright lies about marijuana to all federal attorneys.

Amsterdam has not legalized drugs. Instead, the Dutch have a carefully
evolved policy of tolerating some drug possession and some drug
distribution, while severely punishing abuse of their policy. This policy
has not been repudiated by the citizens, the legislature, or the
law-enforcement agencies. It's not a perfect policy, but it causes less
harm than strict prohibition.

Dombroski asserts, contrary to all available evidence, that legal heroin
would cost more than the present illegal product. Perhaps this would be
true if it were done by the government, but there's no reason to let the
government make as bad a mess of legalization as it has of prohibition.
After all, private industry routinely handles much more dangerous
substances than heroin, competing to keep prices low while maintaining
safety standards (through fear of lawsuits if for no other reason). After
all, heroin is remarkably cheap to produce; the raw material grows!

No, "legalization is not the answer" - but it's closer to than what we've
been trying for decades!

Roy B. Scherer

Richmond