DRUG WAR ONLY EXACERBATES THE PROBLEM, HE CONTENDS

Dear Editor:

It's time to wake up to the fact that enforcing drug laws is a primary
cause of much of the robbery, burglary and property crimes in Clarksdale
and Coahoma County.

The lunatic drug battle being fought by the Clarksdale Police Department,
Coahoma County Sheriff's Department, Mississippi Highway Patrol,
Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms,
U.S. Marshal's Service and Drug Enforcement Administration is not only a
colossal waste of manpower and money; these campaigns actually increase
criminal activity to buy drugs by driving black market prices higher.

It's worth remembering that the United States never had anything remotely
resembling a "drug problem" until after our insane drug-prohibition laws
went on the books. When drugs were legal 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. All of our "drug crime" is caused by a brain-dead drug
policy that has never worked for anything, anywhere, anytime.

When drugs were legal, addicts held regular employment, raised decent
families and were indistinguishable from their teetotaling neighbors.
America's drug crusaders are responsible for thousands of unnecessary "drug
deaths" every year because overdoses were virtually unheard of when addicts
used cheap, pure "Bayer Heroin" instead of the toxic potions prohibition
puts on the streets.

It's time for Mississippi to abandon a delirious drug-prohibition scheme
that causes more troubles than alcohol prohibition.

Redford Givens, San Francisco