Letter Of The Day

LET'S LEGALIZE ALL DRUGS

RE: EMS raving mad over trio of bad ecstasy trips, May 13

Lord save us from the relentless ignorance of the press. How many times are
you going to report this story before you reveal the truth? Nearly all the
harm done to users and non-users alike by illegal drugs is BECAUSE THE
DRUGS ARE PROHIBITED.

Thousands were poisoned by adulterated booze during Prohibition. Thousands
more are dying today because of adulterated drugs, an aspect of government
policy my wife and I became well acquainted with when our 19-year-old son
Peter died shortly after ingesting some street heroin in 1993. If that
weren't bad enough, prohibition nurtures crime. Al Capone was created by
Prohibition, not the other way around. Colombia's drug cartels would have
not become as powerful as they are today if drugs had not been prohibited.
The best way to reduce the harm and heartbreak of illegal drugs is to end
drug prohibition. Let's legalize all drugs, remove the propaganda and the
police from the equation, have the drugs manufactured by knowledgeable,
competent organizations who will supply cheap, quality tested drugs of
known purity and potency and who, in order to avoid legal liability, will
impart factual drug information to us and our children.

There is one more issue to be dealt with. Prohibition clearly doesn't work,
so why do governments persist in banning some drugs? The answer? To
distract attention from more important issues by ruining the lives of an
innocent minority while providing law enforcement agencies with bigger
budgets (and free drugs). Hitler showed the way, our political leaders are
merely following along in his path.

Alan Randell

(You cheapen your own argument when you compare this to Hitler.)