Pubdate: Tue, 20 May 2014
Source: Florida Today (Melbourne, FL)
Copyright: 2014 Francis J. Clifford
Contact: http://www.floridatoday.com/content/forms/services/letters.shtml
Website: http://www.floridatoday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/532
Author: Francis J. Clifford

MAKING A CASE FOR LEGALIZING SOME DRUGS

I want to comment on the young, articulate, writer of the recent
letter, "Medical pot OK, but don't legalize it for all."

The reality is that kids and adults get and will continue to get and
smoke recreational pot, whether or not it is illegal. No method or law
has stopped it or will stop it.

My son is a recovering drug addict (heroin and cocaine) in another
state who now works with other addicts at the place that helped him to
recover. He started his addiction with pot in high school. He now
advocates for the open, regulated sale of pot, heroin and cocaine.

What most of us don't see, but addicts/buyers do, is the tremendous
trafficking, the inner-city wastelands due largely to drug sales and
the billions in cash being made by suppliers, from the streets to the
kingpins.

More importantly than local, state and federal governments realizing
massive income, my son is convinced the entire industry would be
reduced to virtually nothing if these substances were legalized.

Taxpayer dollars saved in the criminal justice system alone would be
enough to be redirected to fighting other crimes, including tax
evasion and other financial fraud that hurt millions of innocent citizens.

His point is the same as that of pot - users get it now and will
continue to get it.

Our elected representatives seem to be afraid to try something, see
how it works and change or even scrap it after a trial period. Keeping
these substances under the wraps of law has gotten us nowhere.

Francis J. Clifford,
Melbourne 
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