PROHIBITION DOESN'T WORK

Dear Editor:

Thanks for publishing David White's outstanding op-ed: "The
un-winnable war" (5-12-07).

I'd like to add that for most of our nation's history we had no
"drug-related crime."

For most of our nation's history drug lords, drug cartels and even
drug dealers as we know them today, didn't exist either. That's
because for most of our nation's history there were no illegal drugs.

Until 1915, a year after the U. S. Congress passed the Harrison
Narcotics Act of 1914, adult U. S. citizens could legally purchase
opium, heroin, morphine, cocaine, or marijuana at just about any
pharmacy or grocery store in the country for pennies per dose with no
questions asked of the buyers. Did we have a lot more drug addicts
back then as compared to today? No.

According to U. S. district judge John L. Kane of Colorado, we had
about 1.3 percent of our citizens addicted to drugs in 1914. We also
had about 1.3 percent of our citizens addicted to drugs in 1970, the
year before President Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs.

And today, after more than 90 years of drug prohibition policies--we
still have about 1.3 percent of our citizens addicted to drugs.

In other words, the money we have spent attempting to become a
"drug-free society" has been completely wasted. Prohibition doesn't work.

Prohibition didn't work for the drug alcohol and it's not working for
any drugs today except to provide for full employment for those doing
the prohibiting.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, AZ 85209