MAKING DRUGS ILLEGAL CREATES A BLACK MARKET

The war on drugs is a failure. The politicians don't like it when we
libertarian types say this, so they call us "extremists," or charge that
we don't care if kids get hooked on drugs. They seek to appeal to
emotion. I'd like to appeal to reason.

The reason kids get hooked on drugs is that there's a tremendous profit
to be made by getting them hooked. By making drugs illegal, you create
a black market for them, which raises the price a hundredfold. With so
much potential profit, criminals have incentive to expand their
"customer base." And to avoid the risk of getting caught, they recruit
kids to get other kids hooked. But if government got out of the way
and allowed the price of drugs to fall to their natural market level,
this profit motive would disappear.

Think this is just theory? Well, ask yourself: Do you see the California
wine industry lurking around schoolyards, trying to get kids hooked on
chablis? Of course not. But if the government made wine illegal, and the
price jumped to $200 a bottle, I guarantee you the crooks would be out
there trying to turn our kids into winos. It would start tomorrow.

Wake up, America. The war on drugs isn't merely a failed solution
it's part of the problem.

BRIAN MULHOLLAND
El Cajon