"RE-LEGALIZE" ILLEGAL DRUGS

I'm writing about Cameron Gower's on-target column: "The war on drugs
has been unsuccessful." Imagine if we had no "drug-related crime."
Imagine if our overall crime rate was a small fraction of our current
crime rate. We once had such a situation in the United States. Prior
to the passage of the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914, the term
"drug-related crime" didn't exist. And drug lords, drug cartels or
even drug dealers as we know them today, didn't exist either.

Back then all types of recreational drugs were legally sold to
anybody with no questions asked, for pennies per dose in grocery
stores and pharmacies. Did we have a lot more drug addicts then
compared to now? No. We had about the same percentage of our
population addicted to drugs, according to U.S. District Judge John
L. Kane of Colorado. For the sake of our children can we
"re-legalize" our now illegal drugs and sell them at licensed
business establishments? This would put the drug dealers and drug
lords out of business overnight.

And this would eliminate the lure of the "forbidden fruit" that makes
drugs so attractive to children.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, AZ