Pubdate: Tue, 17 Jan 2012
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/letters.html
Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Mark Persinger
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v12/n040/a01.html?1311

FOSSILIZED THINKING

Re: "Treason," Letter, Jan. 14., and "Ecstasy victims showed extreme 
symptoms," Jan. 16.

Much like Ronald Reagan's Just Say No policy of the 1980s, Dave 
Reesor's idea of harsh minimum penalties for drug producers belongs in 
a museum. Claiming that illegal organizations produce and distribute 
illegal drugs for anything but profit is an opinion-biased argument. 
Using the case study of the United States as an example for failed 
drug policy, it is clear that harsher prohibition has not affected the 
consumer demand for drugs in any way. Instead, it has pushed 
production south, into Mexico, where a violent drug war has claimed an 
estimated 47,500 lives since 2007 as gangs fight for control over 
unregulated distribution networks into the U.S.A.

These unregulated markets also mean that producers can cut drugs such 
as ecstasy with cheaper substances to maximize profit. If pills laced 
with paramethoxymetham-phetamine are to blame in recent deaths, it 
would be in the Calgary Police Service's best interest to re-lease 
pictures of the pills in question, along with their trademark 
insignia, to effectively warn the public of the dangers.

This strategy is called harm reduction and is an alternative to 
prohibition, which failed to prevent the five deaths in Calgary and 16 
in British Columbia. How many more deaths will happen before our 
elected officials open their eyes to the true dangers of drug prohibition?

Mark Persinger

Calgary
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.