Pubdate: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 Source: Times-Tribune, The (Scranton PA) Contact: 2008 Townnews.com Website: http://www.thetimes-tribune.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4440 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n160/a10.html Author: Kirk Muse PROHIBITION DEADLY Editor: Re: "Drug deaths rising" (Feb.10). The prohibition of alcohol was the source of "bathtub gin" that killed, blinded and crippled thousands. Our current drug prohibition policies are the source of the lethal heroin mixtures that are killing so many drug users today. Drug prohibition is the reason the drugs like heroin are of unknown quality, unknown purity and unknown potency. When pure pharmaceutical-grade Bayer heroin was legally available in pharmacies and grocery stores for pennies per dose, we didn't have black market, bootleg drugs. When we go into a grocery store or pharmacy we can be 99.99 percent assured that we will get the product the container says we will get. This is not so for black market products. For the sake of our children, we need to end our counterproductive drug prohibition policies. KIRK MUSE MESA, ARIZ. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom