Pubdate: Wed, 14 Feb 2007
Source: Langley Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 Langley Times
Contact:  http://www.langleytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1230
Author: Tim Felger
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

LEGALIZING METH WILL SOLVE PROBLEMS

Editor: In response to your editorial (The Times, Feb. 11), this is 
an open letter to Solicitor General John Les.

Making ingredients illegal won't make crystal meth go away. It will 
only become more toxic, and lead to more violence.  There are good 
reasons to legalize, then regulate and even tax crystal meth. 
Foolishly, our present government policy of drug prohibition is 
injecting price increases and violence  into the black market, and 
then abdicating the right to decide the following:

- - Who is going to supply the drugs to the community?

- - What  kind of  drugs are going to be supplied?

- - How much are drugs going to  cost?

- - How potent and toxic are those drugs going to  be?

- - How are they going to be produced?

- - What  age levels are they going  to be sold to?

- - Where are they going to be sold?

Making it more illegal will only make  it more toxic and violent. I 
agree that crystal meth is poison. The question is how to control it 
without eroding our freedoms, and  making the problems worse.

The violence associated with the dealing of  the drug comes not from 
the drug, but from the illegality of its sale.

This country is long overdue in recognizing that the "war on drugs" 
is a "war on ourselves."  We have squandered billions of  dollars and 
too many of our children's lives, addressing a medical and societal 
problem by using the criminal law.

If you really want to protect your child,  look at the government 
policy called drug prohibition and its creation, the black market. 
Regulation is still enforcement -- it is just enforcement light.

The question is not will it harm the individual, but will letting the 
black market make the decisions of distribution and purity help 
reduce the negative effects to  society and the individual?

Regulation  does not mean unfettered access, but restricted access to 
our children.  Just because a drug is toxic is no reason to ban it. 
We don't ban gasoline or glue. These are both abused, addictive and 
do brain  damage.

Making a drug illegal always increases the  price, increases the 
toxicity and increases the violence. It does not eliminate it from 
the marketplace. A domestic ban on the ingredents will only force us 
to import them at a higher price. We can export production and the 
pollution from production, but our demand will create an imported supply.

It is the duty of leadership to explain to the public the truths 
about the true cost of choosing more drug prohibition.

The solution I suggest is understanding   that drug prohibition 
creates social pollution.

Ending drug prohibition means ending the propaganda. That means equal 
podium time for the opposition. This single action   will play a 
decisive role and have an historic impact on the present and future 
of world peace, the environment and social justice.

Tim Felger,

Abbotsford
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