Pubdate: Mon, 04 Oct 1999
Source: Ogdensburg Advance News (NY)
Copyright: 1999 St Lawrence County Newspapers Corp.
Address: P.O. Box 409, Ogdensburg, New York 13669
Author: Nicolas Eyle Executive Director of Reconsider
Note: Nicolas Eyle is Executive Director of Reconsider
NOTE: The Ogdensburg Advance News accepts LTEs by mail only, must be signed 
with phone number
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/clipping/v99/n1085/a05.html?414

LEGALIZE DRUGS

To the Editor;

Your editorial ("Who is Dangerous? 9/23/99) is very confusing.

On one hand you seem to be trying to say that drugs cause violence and 
therefore the people in question need to be in prison to make our society 
safe. On the other hand, every single example you used to make your case 
clearly shows that the violence you are concerned about is caused , not by 
the drugs, but by the prohibition of those drugs. "Addicts" who rob or 
steal to get money to buy drugs are not robing and stealing because they 
are high. They are robbing and stealing because of the artificially high 
prices of these drugs created by prohibition. We should have learned this 
lesson from the last time we tried drug prohibition in this country, 
alcohol prohibition in the 1930's, but , obviously, too many of us didn't. 
Al Capone didn't kill people because he was drunk, he killed people because 
of money.

Money he could make because alcohol was illegal.

As for the stories you cite about physical damage caused by illegal drugs, 
no doubt some are true.  Abuse, of ANY drug, is bad.  I will let the 
doctors argue about which is more harmful to the body, alcohol or 
marijuana, or cocaine but I would like to point out an interesting 
statistic. The number of deaths caused by illegal drugs each year is in the 
neighborhood of three thousand. (I'm only talking about deaths resulting 
from the drug itself, not getting shot in a dispute over drug profits or 
some other related cause). Three thousand deaths from drugs that are not 
regulated as to their purity.

Those who take them are not taking them under a doctors supervision and 
dosage is not indicated on the label .

To obtain a legal drug you need to consult a highly trained physician who 
examines you and prescribes a drug which you buy from a licensed pharmacy, 
who sells you packaged medicines that are FDA approved as to their purity 
and strength.

The resulting deaths total about one hundred and sixty five thousand per 
year ! This has to at least make you reconsider whether perhaps the dangers 
of illegal drugs have been exaggerated.

Nicolas Eyle,
Executive Director
ReconsiDer: Forum on Drug Policy
205 Onondaga Ave.
Syracuse, New York 13207-1439
(315)422.6231 
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