THE US SHOULD LEGALIZE DRUG USE

I was impressed with Mr. Paul W. LeBlanc's simple logic. The idea of paying
farmers not to grow drug-producing plants is economically intriguing and,
by any bookkeeping method, beats all our drug eradication efforts by miles.
Indeed, why should we spend billions of bucks funding an army to invade
Colombia and destroy its citizens at some considerable expense of American
lives? Are not our children's lives more important than any amount of drugs?

However, there is a cheaper and simpler way out of this mess. Decriminalize
personal amounts of drugs. There is nothing this or any other government
can do to guarantee the radicals in the United States a drug-free world,
which is the only way we may have a drug -free society in this country. The
rest of the world is decriminalizing as I write; even stodgy old England is
getting on the wagon by decriminalizing pot and legalizing the
compassionate medical use of marijuana. Portugal has decriminalized drug
use altogether.

If we are to lead the world, we must be freer than other countries or our
words will be seen as merely hollow hypocritical rhetoric. Decriminalize
now and there will be so little profit in drug production that farmers will
be left to starve if they do not switch to another crop. It is not the
police our drug lords fear. It is the corner drug store.

Joseph E. Hopwood

Wheeling