PROHIBITION DOESN'T WORK

Thanks for printing Kirk Muse's letter (Monday, 10-1) about how drug
prohibition supports international terrorism. Politicians who hope to
fight terrorism with a renewed crackdown in their war on (certain) drugs
have got it exactly backwards. As Muse points out, the artificially high
black-market prices that draw criminals and terrorists into the drug trade
are, in fact, a direct result of drug prohibition.

Any student of economics would agree.

When was the last time criminals empires grew rich from liquor profits?
When was the last time rival liquor dealers had a shoot-out in the streets?
When was the last time someone died from drinking wood alcohol sold as
whiskey? All occurred during our "noble experiment" with alcohol
prohibition, and all have ceased since the repeal of Prohibition. It's
time to consider a similar solution to our illegal drug problem. Let's
take the drug market out of the hands of criminals and terrorists, and put
it back in control of legitimate businesspeople and medical professionals.

Keith Sanders