Pubdate: Sat, 05 Oct 2002
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2002, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.fyitoronto.com/torsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Kirk Muse
Note: Parenthetical remark by the Sun editor, headline by newshawk
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1829/a10.html

RE-LEGALIZE ALL DRUGS

THANKS FOR publishing the outstanding letter from Alan and Eleanor Randell 
("Legalize all drugs," Sept. 28). It seems to me that adult citizens of a 
free country should be able to smoke, swallow, snort or inject any 
substance they want. And be personally responsible for the consequences. 
Almost all the problems associated with illegal drugs are because the drugs 
are illegal. When pure pharmaceutical grade heroin was legally sold in 
local pharmacies for about the same price as aspirin, the term 
"drug-related crime" did not exist. Neither did drug lords nor drug 
cartels. These were all created by drug prohibition - not drugs. When all 
drugs were legal, deaths from recreational drugs were rare. That's because 
the drugs were of known quality, known purity and known potency. As to the 
message we would send to our children if we re-legalized all drugs - it's 
not the proper role of a free country's government to protect adult 
citizens from themselves.

Kirk Muse, Mesa, Ariz.

(Someone has to. Adults too often act like children)
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D