DRUG REACTIONS

We Can Choose Rehabilitated Outlook Over Wasted Lives

As a retired 29-year police veteran, I risk provoking the ire of many
of my former peers by asking readers to very carefully contemplate the
reasoning Norm Stamper uses in his argument.

No doubt we spend billions fighting a losing drug war. History tells
us that prohibition of alcohol only made gangsters and bootleggers
rich.

No one could argue that if street drugs were legalized and produced
under government control, the danger of deaths resulting from
contaminated ingredients would be significantly reduced. Money could
be available for education and rehabilitation of our young citizens,
rather than wasting it on incarcerating them for most of their lives.

I wish I had kept records of the number of drug-related death
investigations I screened while I served as a police supervisor. The
only time such deaths were reported by the media was when the victims
were famous persons.

Please do not hate me -- just think about it!

Howard A. Monta (retired Seattle Police Department sergeant),
Seattle