Pubdate: Fri, 14 Nov 2008
Source: Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ)
Copyright: 2008 South Jersey Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/29
Author: Tim Datig

STIMULATE THE ECONOMY - AND FIGHT AL-QAIDA - BY LEGALIZING DRUGS

Part of the solution to America's economic crisis can be found in any 
basic history textbook.

Seventy-five years ago this December, our nation's leaders were 
sensible enough to realize that we could no longer afford to enforce 
the ineffective prohibition of alcohol during the Great Depression 
and that we should instead bolster our economy with tax revenue from 
legal liquor and beer sales.

Today, we could similarly fill in a big part of the hole in our 
economy if we stopped spending so much money locking people up and 
instead moved drugs out of the criminal black market and into a 
system of legalized and taxed regulation.

But the economy isn't the only reason we should change our drug laws.

As a retired police officer, police chief and member of Law 
Enforcement Against Prohibition, I hope policymakers remember how we 
put dangerous gangsters like Al Capone out of business when we ended 
alcohol prohibition. Today, we can hurt al-Qaida's bottom line by 
regulating the drug trade that these terrorists currently make so 
much money from. The illegal drug trade is estimated to be $450 
billion per year worldwide.

We are arresting 2 million people a year for mostly minor drug 
offenses. Our prisons are bursting at the seams, and the prison 
industry is perhaps the fastest growing business in the United 
States. We repealed a failed prohibition policy once before to help 
solve economic and crime problems. We can do it again.

TIM DATIG

Egg Harbor Township
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