Pubdate: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2008 The Dallas Morning News, Inc. Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/lettertoed.cgi Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n709/a02.html Author: Howard Wooldridge Note: From Newshawk: First LTE in the print edition. ILLEGAL DRUGS REDUCE PUBLIC SAFETY Re: "Legalizing pot doesn't make us safer. We are winning the fight against drug use and abuse, says James Capra," Tuesday Viewpoints. As a police officer who worked the trenches for 18 years, my experience is that marijuana prohibition dramatically reduces public safety. Street cops spend millions of hours chasing adults who use marijuana in their homes. Detectives spend hundreds of thousands of hours searching for pot gardens. Every hour spent in this pursuit is one less hour to arrest the deadly DUI, the child porn producers and others who would hurt innocents. Mr. Capra of the DEA either was never a street cop, or he is worried about losing his job and pension. Given a choice, most street cops would rather spend time arresting a DUI, not an adult using marijuana in his or her home. Howard Wooldridge, Dallas - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake