Pubdate: Fri, 01 Dec 2006
Source: Reporter, The (Vacaville, CA)
Copyright: 2006 The Reporter
Contact:  http://www.thereporter.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/472
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n1573/a08.html
Author: Clifford A. Schaffer

PROHIBITION AN INEFFECTIVE POLICY

A letter writer certainly has my sympathy for the tragedies he and 
his family have suffered ("Where is concern for marijuana victims?" 
The Reporter, Nov. 19). However, we should note a few things:

First, marijuana is already illegal and that didn't prevent those problems.

Second, the offenders in those cases could be prosecuted for impaired 
driving - just like drunken drivers - regardless of whether the drug 
they took is legal.

Third, if deaths on the road are the concern, then alcohol wins all 
the prizes, hands down. No other drug, or combination of drugs, even 
comes close to the toll that alcohol takes on the roads.

At one time we outlawed alcohol to try to deal with those problems. 
We rapidly discovered that Prohibition only made things worse. 
Arrests for alcohol-related problems skyrocketed. Homicides soared to 
new records. Even worse, it triggered the biggest teen drinking 
epidemic the United States has ever seen. Prohibition was eventually 
repealed because it caused more problems than it solved.

If the letter writer is really interested in more effective 
solutions, he can find the recommendations of most of the major 
government commissions from around the world at 
www.druglibrary.org/schaffer under "Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy."

Clifford A. Schaffer, Agua Dulce 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake