Pubdate: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 Source: Dayton Daily News (OH) Copyright: 2013 Dayton Daily News Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/7JXk4H3l Website: http://www.daytondailynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/120 Note: By the Ideas & Voices team MANY FAVOR PRACTICAL FIX FOR WAR ON DRUGS Today we present many of the comments we received this week from our readers about drugs and whether they should be legalized. An addict's view I am rather close to this subject. I am a recovering addict - by the grace of a power stronger than myself - since 1989 and will be the first one to say that the only way to change an addict's behavior is for the addict to want to change. It is not an easy choice, nor an easy road. I still have the thought enter my head every once in a while; it is then that I have to stop and think about everything I have to lose, if I decide to do that first line. At first, I would just use on the weekends, and maybe spend $100 a weekend; but by the end of my run, I was a $200-a-day cocaine user for about three years. I spent about seven years in this lifestyle, but I still worked so I could get my dope on pay day. I would buy twice as much as I needed for my personal use and sell half of it to pay for mine. I got to the point that I was tired of playing the game. I was tired of the running around. I was tired of the lies. Until these addicts today hit that point, no amount of intervention will help them. I know people who have done months - even years - in prison and, when they get out, the first thing they do is stick a rig in their arm on the way home. If the government were smart, it would legalize it and then control the sales in "state stores," like they do with alcohol. Just think of the tax money they would create and money they would save. I'm just saying. JEFF GERKEN, NEW CARLISLE 'Take the profit out' I am a retired pharmacist - after 63 years - so I have seen a lot in our society's behavior. I have advocated, albeit without much action, this very position. Take the profit out and everyone - from the runners to the cartels - would shrink and markedly reduce their terrible effect on our society, cost of prisons, law enforcement, etc. The idea - when I have discussed this with people in police work or some lawyers - is met with some legitimate concerns. Perhaps another issue is that our elected officials do not want to be seen as soft on crime. The cost of these substances when legal is low; the cost of treatment is large, but the savings in enforcement is huge. Will it ever happen? Given all the realities, in my opinion, probably not; but a lot of ball games have been won in the ninth inning and the fourth quarter. Advocates, stay in the batter's box and keep swinging. JOE BETTMAN, ENGLEWOOD 'One state at a time' Should marijuana be legalized for medicinal purposes or even for recreational use? Yes. The medical uses of marijuana have repeatedly been clearly demonstrated. There are patients in Ohio who need marijuana, some just to stay alive. ... Can marijuana be medically harmful? Yes. But so can essentially every other drug in the current pharmacopoeia. Many of these can be fatal but the lethal dose for marijuana has never been demonstrated; there have been no recorded fatalities from marijuana usage. Regarding recreational marijuana, consider the following: Read the history of the movement to have marijuana stigmatized and prohibited, starting in the 1920s. It is a tale of deception, power politics, misleading public media, false science and overly excessive religious morality. The consensus of a large number of topflight medical practitioners, social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists and law enforcement officers is that marijuana is less harmful to the individual user and to society as a whole than either alcohol or tobacco. It is clearly unjust and irrational that there is a severe penalty for use of or trafficking in marijuana while not for those two more harmful drugs. The illegality of recreational (as well as medicinal) marijuana creates the drug cartels which siphon billions of dollars out of the U.S. economy each year. Legalizing marijuana would leave many of those dollars to circulate in our economy and help in our current attempts at economic recovery. Prohibition of alcohol was recognized as a failure within a decade. It has taken us four decades to start to recognize the same failure for marijuana (and for other drugs as well). The imprisonment of users and traffickers in marijuana has filled our prisons way beyond their capacity, even after making repeated enlargements, giving an unnecessary tax burden to society, and keeping these people out of a productive place in the economy. It is time for a fullblown discussion at the national level. Since there is a concerted avoidance of the problem at the national level, piecemeal improvement - one state at a time - is the most available route to providing change. GORDON TAYLOR, WASHINGTON TWP Are laws working? My question is whether we should have a major national study by an impartial commission to consider the possibility of legalizing drugs, such as heroin, cocaine and marijuana. First, you should understand what I mean by "legalize." I do not mean repeal the drug laws (decriminalize). I do not mean let drug dealers go free to sell drugs on the street. Under legalization, the government would keep all of the drug laws in place - with certain exceptions. It would prosecute all drug smugglers, distributors, pushers and sellers the same as before. However, under legalization, the government would create a system of competition that would drive drug pushers out of business and destroy distributors, smugglers and international cartels. Legalization would mean that it would be legal to sell heroin, cocaine, marijuana and other drugs in licensed pharmacies. They would be sold over the counter the way alcohol is sold today in liquor stores, and they would be sold only to people over the age of 21. This kind of legalization would not work if the drugs could be sold only by prescription. That would leave it open for pushers to sell without prescriptions and would leave the illegal network of sellers in place. It would not work if only marijuana was sold. That would leave the illegal network in place to sell cocaine, heroin and other drugs. It would work only if all - or almost all - illegal drugs were sold over the counter. I am not advocating that we do this. I am advocating that we have a national commission study the question of whether this should be done. Legalization might be a terrible idea - a disaster. But it is possible that it could work in the same way that the repeal of Prohibition worked. Whether they are legal or illegal, drugs will always be a serious problem. It is possible, however, that we could make drugs a health problem, instead of a law-enforcement problem. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether the laws against illegal drugs help our society or hurt it. Do the drug laws protect and benefit us? Do they create order? Do they work? Are they limiting or reducing the drug trade? Are they reducing crime? Are they limiting or reducing drug addiction? Are they saving us money? I am not concerned here with whether drug laws violate people's rights and freedoms. The only thing we should consider is whether the drug laws help us or hurt us. JOHN LEMOULT, XENIA TWP. It would take time Frank Abernathy's idea is great. I had some thoughts on this a few years ago. My idea was to start small, just in Montgomery County, and then expand it into neighboring counties. You set up a facility where the drug user could come to get free drugs. They would shoot up, or whatever they do, and they must go through a treatment program to get them off the drugs. They would be monitored to stop their dependency on drugs. If pushers have no one to sell drugs to, they will move on. It is not going to happen overnight but, with time, it will work. JERRY JAMIESON, WASHINGTON 'It helped everyone' I watched a segment on "60 Minutes" some years ago about this idea. They reported on an experiment in a town in Great Britain very similar to your article and had excellent results. The crime in the area dropped dramatically and those addicted were able to function in society, their families and work. It helped everyone. I work as a volunteer at my church, feeding the hungry in Dayton twice a week. It is very obvious that many of them are drug addicted and in need of help that is not available to them now. This idea needs to be encouraged. I am willing to back you if you need a signature on a petition or maybe other help to get this started. We need ways to get good ideas put into action. DIANNE SAMSON, DAYTON 'Crime and misery' I couldn't agree with Frank Abernathy more. I've been saying this for a long time. Prohibition does not work. It does not reduce drug use and does produce terrible side effects. Remove the profit motive and you remove the crime and misery of addiction. In addition to eliminating the enormous costs of enforcement and reducing the horror of human misery, we gain tax revenue. Someone close to me is a drug counselor. He agrees. He believes in legalizing drugs and using the vast savings that result to treat addiction. Treatment - not punishment. TED WEATHERUP, SPRINGFIELD 'High on life' Frank Abernathy's article ignores human behavior. Mr. Abernathy suggests a result from dispensing drugs that is unrealistic, given the high unemployment rate, especially in the younger ages of our society. Young people without jobs would be first in line to buy government-supplied marijuana and cocaine, looking for an escape from the despair of their idleness. The soft-drink industry is a prime example of what happens when easy access and low price are combined. Our youth are already addicted to sweet drinks. Imagine a society where future leaders and income earners must cope with an addiction that started with low-cost government drugs. No, the solution to our drug problem must begin in the home and our schools. We have to educate about the destructive effects of drug use and help people get "high on life" - with a good job, a loving family and a brighter future. CHICK FRAUNFELTER, MIDDLETOWN - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom