LEGAL DRUGS WOULD REDUCE CRIME

To the editor:

Thanks for yet another article pointing out the error of our ways when
dealing with the war on some drugs ("Heist Haven," Dec. 15).

Imagine how much the bank robberies would decline if the junkies that are
doing the crimes could just get their drugs at a government-run kiosk for a
tenth of what they pay on the black market. From what I understand, it costs
less than a dollar a gram to make pure cocaine, yet 50 per cent crap is sold
on the streets for $80 a gram. No wonder these addicts need so much cash to
fuel their addiction.

Tobacco is one of the most highly addictive substances in the world and it
sells for $7 an ounce, but I can't remember the last time I heard of someone
robbing a bank for a carton of smokes. The addicts are addicted to a
substance and they are going to get that substance one way or another
whether they have to rob, steal or kill. If the addict was given pure dope
with a safe place to use it and was offered help by a doctor every time he
came to get the drugs, we would probably see less addiction in the long run.
The black market would disappear because not even a junkie is going to pay
black market prices when there is a government office down the street
practically giving it away.

It is time to end drug prohibition. It is time to stop caging humans because
they choose to put something into their body that not everyone chooses to
put into their own bodies. The more I read articles like the one in your
paper, the more I believe that there must be better ways to treat an
addiction than intensive Bubba therapy in an eight-by-10 room for two years
less a day.

Trevor Houlahan,
Garson, Ont.