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From: jeffw@midas.UUCP (Jeff Winslow)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: The war on drugs
Message-ID: <681@midas.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 17-Sep-86 11:54:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: midas.681
Posted: Wed Sep 17 11:54:52 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Sep-86 00:13:34 EDT
References: <5305@decwrl.DEC.COM> <1066@kontron.UUCP> <363@cci632.UUCP>
Reply-To: jeffw@midas.UUCP (Jeff Winslow)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.
Lines: 32

In article <363@cci632.UUCP> rb@ccird1.UUCP (Rex Ballard) writes:

>>> Most of the problems associated with drugs are due to fact
>>> that they are illegal.
>
>If you mean that because addicts are often sent to jail instead of
>treatment or rehab centers, they are less willing to come forward
>when they are ready to quit, I agree.  If you mean an "open market"
>for heroin would solve the drug problem, I can't agree.  Having
>been through the entire start/addiction/recovery route, I can't say
>that the legality had much affect either way.  It is too easy to get
>"Legal" drugs when the supply of "illegal" drugs got scarce.  Addicts
>are very versitile.

Exactly. Which is why an open market on heroin *would* (for the most
part) solve the parts of the drug problem which cause the most grief -
the robberies, the poisonous impurities, and the rich drug dealers.
Of course, the number of people *on* heroin will not decrease. If I
read you right, it will not increase either. So you have a choice -
X junkies with a load of crime and costly law enforcement, or X junkies,
period. Isn't the answer obvious? (Surely no one is so naive as to
believe that significantly fewer junkies is a realisitic probability?)

Of course, with the original Mr. and Mrs. Clown in the White House, it
will never happen. Probably not even without them.

"What about the junkies", everyone wails. What about them? You can only
do so much to save people from their own stupidity, and as has been pointed
out, removing the stigma of illegality *would* help those wanting to quit
to come forward.

						Jeff Winslow