Pubdate: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 Source: St. Cloud Times (MN) Copyright: 2003 St. Cloud Times Contact: http://www.sctimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2559 Author: Kirk Muse Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1384/a06.html LEGALIZING DRUGS WILL CURB CRIME Thank you for publishing the outstanding Sept. 14 letter "War on drugs is a failure." I'd like to add that our phony, so-called war on drugs has corrupted all levels of our government, from the police on the beat to the highest levels of our government, just as alcohol prohibition did during our great-grandfathers' era known as the "Noble Experiment." Alcohol prohibition was terminated, not because we decided alcohol wasn't so bad after all, but because of the crime and corruption prohibition caused. Prohibiting a desired consumer product, any consumer product, does not reduce or eliminate the demand for the product. It just turns the distribution of the desired product over to criminals and then the product becomes untaxed and unregulated. Notice that we have almost no tobacco-related crime. That would soon change if we removed tobacco from the legitimate market and criminalized it. Tobacco would then be untaxed, unregulated and controlled by criminal gangs - - just as recreational drugs are today. When alcohol prohibition was terminated in 1933, the U.S. murder rate declined for 10 consecutive years. Have we learned any lessons? Not yet. Kirk Muse Mesa, Arizona - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom