ANTI-DRUG WARRIORS THINK ALL DRUGS ALIKE

In her Dec. 7 letter, Veronica Nunley attempts to confuse the drug issue
with misleading statements. Does she really want to improve the lot of
Americans or is she protecting her little piece of the war against drugs?

A logical, measured drug policy eludes us because we discuss all illicit
substances as equals. This is not only untrue, but restricts our ability to
control even the most harmful concoctions.

The drug warriors tell us apples are oranges, right is left, and up is
down, and we quietly accept it, because, after all, it's for the children.
Anything besides this assault on the U.S. Constitution, disguised as a drug
war, is "legalization." Pure rubbish.

Legalization does not mean a full-blown, unrestricted, unregulated scheme.

If the statistics are to be believed, the Dutch model is the most realistic
and least harmful drug policy currently implemented by any nation in the
free world. The Dutch have concluded that marijuana is not heroin and
heroin is not cocaine. Not exactly rocket science. Each substance is
completely different and each requires regulation, as varied as the
substances themselves, based on their actual harm to society.

One thing is abundantly clear. Remove marijuana from the mix of illegal
substances, allow the funding generated from its taxed, controlled and
regulated sale to be directed at prevention, education, and treatment for
the most dangerous products and the drug "problem" transforms from a raging
tiger to a malevolent alley cat.

If all the wasted resources used to "research" and prohibit marijuana were
directed toward the most harmful substances, legal and illegal, the debate
concerning "drugs" would end and the "war on drugs" could ascend the trash
heap of failed social programs, occupying its rightful position alongside
other anomalies of history, such as alcohol prohibition and the Salem witch
trials.

Mike Plylar

Kremmling, CO