Pubdate: Mon, 05 Jul 2010
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2010 The Sun-Times Co.
Contact: http://www.suntimes.com/aboutus/feedback/index.html
Website: http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Author: Dan Linn

ANOTHER FAILED PROHIBITION

The violence in Chicago and the increasing deaths from opioids in the 
suburbs could both be prevented if lawmakers would learn the lesson 
of Prohibition.

Alcohol prohibition had the intention of making society better by 
outlawing the sale of an intoxicating substance, but it led to 
violence, corruption and products that were even more dangerous 
because they were unregulated and adulterated. The war on drugs is 
another failed prohibition.

The gangs that plague this city fight over drug-dealing territory, 
but if we took these substances out of the underground market and 
regulated them, as we do alcohol and tobacco, we would financially 
undermine the gangs.

Until lawmakers find the courage to regulate drugs in a legal market, 
cartels and gangs will control the production and distribution, and 
more people will become addicted.

Dan Linn, Lower West Side
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom