LEGALIZE DRUGS, WATCH CRIME DISAPPEAR

Is it any surprise that crime and drug activity in Hamilton Hill picked up
again after police swept the area and removed 100 or so drug dealers? Not
really. It's been well documented that drug sweeps do nothing to end the
drug trade. They merely replace one set of dealers with another, with a
corresponding increase in violence as the new dealers fight for all that
turf that is now up for grabs.

It is the dealers, after all, who are responsible for the drug-related
mayhem on our streets. Drug users, for the most part, only become a threat
to society when the price of drugs exceeds their ability to pay for them.
What drives up the price of drugs? Drug prohibition, of course.

Someday, the America public will realize that drug prohibition, like
alcohol prohibition before it, only fuels crime and violence in our
society. Providing addicts with a safe, low-cost, steady supply of even
hard drugs like heroin will remove the drug dealers from our streets,
drastically cut down on overdose and drug-related deaths, reduce property
crime caused by addicts and make it exceedingly difficult for our young
people to acquire drugs.

Isn't that why we are fighting the drug war in the first place?

ARTHUR COLE

Hope Valley, R.I.