LEGALIZING RECREATIONAL DRUGS IS 'NAIVE'

Re: Recreational drugs should be legalized (column, March 3).

What was Dr. Laurie Cook smoking when he wrote this article, or did
he intend to open discussion? I choose to think the latter.

Back in the early '50s, England decided to follow this eccentric
route. Two thousand known heroin addicts were immediately registered.
Within 10 years the number was in the tens of thousands. The idea
that addicts could "pick up a scrip" at the local chemist, i.e.
pharmacy, and thus not be involved in the illegal trade proved to be
a fallacy. Within no time addicts were "double scripping," selling
their legally obtained heroin and buying stronger product from
pushers. Pushers? Shouldn't the illegal trade have faded to nothing?

If you were to walk around Liverpool, Skelmersdale, Kirby, or Wigan,
not to mention Greater Manchester or any of Britain's major cities, I
know for a fact that there are thousands of parents who would
cheerfully throttle Dr. Cook slowly for suggesting such claptrap.
It's obviously a case of upper middle class intellectual snobbery on his part.

My suggestion? Get into the trenches, and I don't mean dealing with
patients in his office.

Prince George's problem, though bad and growing, is nothing compared
to an English council estate in say, Nottingham.

One of the main problems is that scumbag pushers are allowed to
thrive economically by the courts. Take everything they own. They'll
soon quit. Give them a year for every gram they are caught with. Even
with the availability of their recreational drugs when inside, they
don't like prison. Their families enjoy the spoils -- let them suffer, too.

As for the fallacy of the Netherlands. Just go to page 2 of the March
3 Citizen and read "Driver leaves his hash after bash." Stop reading
the propaganda from the perverts destroying our children and go and
talk to Dutch police officers. I have. Ask them how many bodies they
fish out of the canals every month that are related to drug crime.

As for trafficking ceasing to be profitable? Countries like
Afghanistan that support narco terrorism would always make product available.

Dr. Cook's comment that court and prison costs would fall is naive.
If we are to have such freedom of choice, why are his colleagues
constantly railing about the costs to society of smoking. His own
comments defeat his logic.

- -- Mike C. Shepherd

Prince George