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HAVE WE LEARNED?

To the Editor:

If Desoxyn, the legal pharmaceutical form of methamphetamine, was legally available without a prescription in local pharmacies for pennies per dose, would we have illegal clandestine meth labs throughout the nation? I don't think so.

Ninety years ago, all types of recreational drugs were legally available in local pharmacies for pennies per dose - including pure pharmaceutical grade Bayer heroin.

Ninety years ago, the term "drug-related crime" didn't exist.  Neither did drug lords, drug cartels or even drug dealers as we know them today.

Ninety years ago, Coca-Cola contained cocaine instead of caffeine and sold for five cents a bottle.  Ninety years ago, deaths from recreational drugs were very rare.  That's because the drugs were of known quality, known purity and known potency.  That's just the opposite of the bootleg, black market illegal drugs of today.

When alcohol prohibition was terminated in 1933 it was not because they decided that alcohol was not so bad after all, but rather because of the crime and corruption that prohibition caused.

When alcohol prohibition was terminated in 1933, our overall crime rate decreased substantially.  Our murder rate declined for 10 consecutive years.

Have we learned any lessons?

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.