Laws. Good God, y'all...

Re: "IT'S ABOUT DRUGS!," Opinions, June 10.

James Steidle neglected to mention the historic fact that heroin and
cocaine never caused any serious problems until after they were outlawed.

No one was robbing, whoring and murdering over drugs when addicts could buy
all of the heroin, cocaine, morphine, opium and anything else they wanted
cheaply and legally at the corner pharmacy. When drugs were legal addicts
held regular employment, raised decent families and were indistinguishable
from their teetotaling neighbors. Overdoses were virtually unheard of when
addicts used cheap pure Bayer Heroin instead of the toxic potions
prohibition puts on the streets. (See: The Consumers Union Report on Licit
and Illicit Drugs Chapter 5. Some eminent narcotics addicts
www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/cu/cu5.html)

Where drug crime was unknown we now have prisons overflowing with drug
users. Where addicts lived normal lives, we have hundreds of thousands of
shattered families. Where overdoses were extremely rare, we have tens of
thousands of drug deaths every year. The addiction rate is now five times
greater than when we had no laws at all (See: Snow Job: The Demonization of
Cocaine, by Jacob Sullum reason.com/opeds/js092799.html).

"The menace of the goddamned junky and stoner" only exists because of a
lunatic drug crusade that has never worked for anything, anywhere, anytime.

Redford Givens