DRUG CRIMES ARE THE RESULT OF FAILED POLICIES

If Stephen Menz really wants to end his "drug problems" he should pray for
repeal of America's lunatic drug crusade because no one was robbing,
whoring and murdering over drugs when addicts could buy all of the heroin,
cocaine, morphine, opium they wanted cheaply and legally at the corner
pharmacy.

When drugs were legal, addicts held regular employment, raised decent
families and were indistinguishable for their teetotaling neighbors.
Overdoses were virtually unheard of.

Now we have prisons overflowing with drug users. Where addicts lived normal
lives, we have hundreds of thousand 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.

The "drug problems" we have are a direct consequence of a brain-dead drug
prohibition policy, not the drugs themselves. "Squeez[ing] them (drug
dealers) at every opportunity" is in fact the precise cause of "drug crimes."

Redford Givens

San Francisco, Calif.