Get Active Subscribe Support Us

PROHIBITION OFFERS LESSON ON 'MISGUIDED' DRUG LAWS

To the Editor:

I'm writing about the outstanding letter from Ken Metz on misguided drug laws.

When is the last time the Times-News ran front-page stories about alcohol cartels engaged in gun battles in the streets? Probably about 1933, the year we terminated the disaster known as alcohol prohibition.

If the United States and Mexico re-legalized all of our now illegal drugs so they can be sold in regulated in licensed business establishments for pennies per dose, would this solve our drug problems? No.

However, it would substantially reduce our crime rate, especially our violent crime and property crime.  And it would substantially increase our public safety.

Alcohol prohibition was not terminated in 1933 because they decided that alcohol was not so bad after all, but rather because of the crime and corruption that its prohibition caused.  In 1933 our overall crime rate declined substantially and our murder rate declined for 10 consecutive years.

Have we learned any lessons from this experience? Not yet.

Kirk Muse

Mesa.  Ariz.