Pubdate: Fri, 21 Jul 2000
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191
Fax: (619) 293-1440
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX
Author: A. L. Bishop

INCONSISTENT VIEWS ON NICOTINE, OTHER DRUGS

Could we please have some explanation for your confusing editorial 
positions concerning addictive substances? You consistently refer to 
illegal drug addiction as a "disease," and you often side with those 
crowding the "treatment" trough for taxpayer money.

But in your July 18 editorial ("Florida jackpot"), you say tobacco pushers 
shouldn't have to pay because people are addicted to nicotine by "the 
choices they knowingly made, the risks they willingly took."

Are you suggesting that if heroin and cocaine were to become legal, using 
them no longer would be a disease, but just a "personal responsibility" 
thing? And that the scumbag cartels thus would have no responsibility for 
the lives they have destroyed with their product?

A.L. Bishop, San Diego
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D