HERE'S A SHOT AT THAT IDEA

Prohibition has enriched violent mobsters and corrupted law
enforcement officials. It has caused gang warfare, stray bullets, and
dead police officers. It has failed to keep drugs off our streets (or
even out of our prisons and schools), and has made it easier for young
people to obtain illegal substances (black market dealers don't
typically ask for identification). It has even made the illegal
products more dangerous, since there is no regulation of the
production or distribution for quality, purity and dosage. It has
pushed addicts underground, rather than into treatment. After thirty
years of the drug war, children can purchase drugs on any street
corner in America.

In the meantime, our overburdened criminal justice system is giving
early releases to pedophiles, rapists, and murderers. If that's not
the definition of a failed policy, what is?

Legalizing drugs is not "liberal thinking." It's a sound policy that
places public safety before personal moralistic policies, and gives us
a smaller government to boot.

Christopher Largen

Denton, Texas