Pubdate: Fri, 01 Oct 2010 Source: Boston Globe (MA) Copyright: 2010 Jack Kay Contact: http://bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340 Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52 Author: Jack Kay Note: 2nd of 2 PUB LTEs under this headline COLLATERAL DAMAGE IN A LOST WAR ON DRUGS RE "IN Mattapan, a grisly sign of a wider crime problem" (Editorial, Sept. 29): The "wider crime problem" in this country is that the drug war is over: Drugs have won. As with the nationwide ban on alcohol during the Prohibition-era 1920s, there is simply too much tax- free cash in drug distribution to ever rid us of the industry's employees, their murderous turf fights, and the innocent blood they regularly claim. It is time to place drugs along with alcohol and tobacco on the legalized and taxable list. Everyone in the drug trade, from the lords of the cartels to the street dealers, would promptly be on the unemployment line, and society could save untold billions of dollars over the first 10 years. If our society can successfully stigmatize smoking, the same can be done for drugs. And if a few rich teens in the suburbs ruin their lives by becoming addicts, it is a form of collateral damage I am willing to risk. Jack Kay Framingham - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D