Pubdate: Mon, 29 Dec 2014
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2014 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Jack A. Cole

RADICAL CHANGE ON DRUGS IS THE ONLY WAY FORWARD

I SPENT 26 years as a State Police officer fighting the drug war, 14 
of those years as an undercover officer working every kind of case, 
including billion-dollar heroin trafficking conspiracies. I have seen 
the ravages of both drug use and current drug policy.

The consequences of addiction in an illegal marketplace are far 
greater than the addiction alone. Users don't know how much of their 
purchase is heroin or whether it has been cut with an agent such as 
Fentanyl, a drug many times stronger than heroin.

Over the past year, the Globe has published dozens of similar 
articles discussing the appalling increase in heroin overdose deaths. 
Yet there hasn't been a significant discussion of solutions to this problem.

If we want to stop overdose deaths, we must legalize and regulate 
drugs. Once this happens, drug users will know what they are 
consuming and overdose deaths will plummet. Drug users are our 
children, our parents, and our neighbors. Providing compassionate 
treatment during their addiction, rather than incarceration, will 
keep them alive long enough for a chance at sobriety.

Jack A. Cole

Medford

The writer is co-founder and board chair of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom