LEGALIZE DRUGS, END DRUG-RELATED CRIME

The story, "Feds link drug ring to terror" (Sept.2) failed to mention why
drugs and terrorists are linked: prohibition. When pure
pharmaceutical-grade Bayer heroin was legally sold in local pharmacies for
about the same price as Bayer aspirin, drug lords, drug cartels and
drug-related crime didn't exist.

Criminals and terrorists are involved in the drug business for one reason:
drug prohibition. It has caused easy-to-make drugs like methamphetamine to
become more valuable than pure gold.

If all recreational drugs were legalized, regulated and controlled by our
government, terrorists and criminals would get out of the drug business in
a heartbeat. Just like they got out of the alcohol business when alcohol
prohibition ended.

As to the message we would send to our children if we again legalized
recreational drugs: It's not the proper role of a free country's government
to protect adult citizens from themselves.

Kirk Muse Mesa