Pubdate: Mon, 30 Sep 2002
Source: Detroit News (MI)
Copyright: 2002, The Detroit News
Contact:  http://detnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/126
Author: A. Ladak
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1784/a04.html
Note: The Detroit News printed 5 letters under this headline.

SHOULD ILLEGAL DRUGS BE DECRIMINALIZED?

Give Up Losing Battle

I part company with my ultraconservative friends on legalizing drugs. Nolan 
Finley is correct: The so-called war on drugs has been a disaster, and a 
radically new approach is called for ("While Canada explores legalizing 
pot, America's drug war escalates," Sept. 22).

Drug prohibition -- combined with a decades-old, ineffective and 
monstrously expensive campaign against producers and peddlers of drugs -- 
has been a miserable failure. Worse, the prohibition of drugs is directly 
responsible for the crime and misery associated with the drug trade -- and 
a major reason that parts of Detroit, Newark and similar cities resemble 
Third World hellholes like Mogadishu.

To paraphrase a familiar saying, only an idiot persists in doing the same 
thing in hopes of getting a different result.

Our Canadian neighbors are willing to try a different approach, and I 
applaud them. Legalizing pot -- and controlling its production and 
distribution -- couldn't possibly make things worse, but it might help to 
combat drug use more effectively.

A. Ladak, Warren
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D