FREE TO BE ILL

Re: "Unecstatic," Letter, Dec. 11.

Now that Dr. Scott Patten has told us all about the dangers of the chemical
substance 3-4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine, perhaps he can tell us about
how prohibition ensures that street drugs are even more harmful because
there is no regulation and no one knows what substances are being used.

Next, Patten can perhaps tell us why dangerous substances such as rat
poison and bleach are legal while politically designated "dangerous drugs"
are not? Just because a substance is dangerous does not mean its use ought
to be prohibited. The truth is that if bleach and strychnine were
prohibited, people would concoct their own substances, leading to an even
more dangerous underground situation.

It ought to be of no concern to the state if a free man wants to eat
poison. If I do my body harm, it is I who pay and not the state.

Chris Buors, Winnipeg, Man.