Pubdate: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 Source: Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA) Copyright: 2010 The Spokesman-Review Contact: http://www.spokesman.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/417 Author: Eric Lafko LEGAL DRUGS CURB KILLINGS Mexico and the U.S. need to legalize drugs. These governments should expand their roles in their existing drug businesses. Alcohol, a dangerous drug, is a real money-maker for these bureaucrats. Hundreds of billions in potential tax money is up for grabs, plus the billions a year spent punishing those who select something other than the sanctioned, legal drug. Are the thousands of murders this year in Juarez worth continued enforced selective moral choice? How about the 18 policemen shot dead or beheaded in Acapulco and the U.S. consulate family murdered recently? Or, 80,000 other drug-related murders? Decriminalize drugs and bye-bye violent cartels continuing to enrich themselves on the fact some people prefer cocaine over alcohol. Either drug can kill you. Must another innocent soul be murdered due to another's preferences in pursuit of happiness? In the '20s, pot was legal. Alcohol was not. Cocaine was in Coca-Cola. Not anymore. Politics. Federal empowerment of cartels wastes billions of dollars only to continue to lay the groundwork for thousands more executions by druglords. Baffled, these governments continue policies of failed remedies and continue to hope for new results. This is, remember, the definition of insanity. Eric Lafko Nine Mile Falls - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D