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From: rjn@duke.UUCP (R. James Nusbaum)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,net.med
Subject: Re: Drug Abuse - True Problem or Media Hype?
Message-ID: <8591@duke.duke.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 20-Sep-86 21:10:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: duke.8591
Posted: Sat Sep 20 21:10:27 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Sep-86 04:28:45 EDT
References: <720@scc.UUCP> <20756@rochester.ARPA> <463@epimass.UUCP> <1302@trwrb.UUCP>
Reply-To: rjn@duke.UUCP (R. James Nusbaum)
Organization: Duke University, Durham NC
Lines: 48
Xref: linus talk.politics.misc:297 net.med:4657

In article <1302@trwrb.UUCP> suhre@trwrb.UUCP (Maurice E. Suhre) writes:
>In article <463@epimass.UUCP> jbuck@epimass.UUCP (Joe Buck) writes:
>>You're right, Ray.  A fairer comparison would be to legal, but
>>harmful, drugs like tobacco (350,000 deaths a year) and alcohol
>>(25,000 deaths in drunk driving wrecks alone).  Can you explain
>>to me why cocaine use is worse for society than alcohol and tobacco
>>use?
>	I don't have to.  The principle is, if you have two problems
>	on your hands, should you acquire a third one if you don't
>	have to?
>
>	But for starters, I don't think that tobacco users have
>	to steal to support their "habit".  Similar for alcohol
>	users.
>
>-- 
>Maurice Suhre
>
>{decvax,sdcrdcf,ihnp4,ucbvax}!trwrb!suhre

I hear the above argument used over and over again, 'Alcohol and tobacco
aren't as bad because they don't cause crime'.  The reason they don't
cause crime is because they are not illegal!  In the first place the
number of drug users who steal to support their habit is very small in
comparison to the total number of users.  In the second place if the drugs
were legal they would be much much cheaper.  The laws of economics
guarantee this.  Many drug users smoke and drink too, but they don't
need to steal for these habits because they only cost a couple of dollars
a day.  If heroin and cocaine were legal and cheap, these people would
not have to steal, their habits would no longer be illegal, and the only
detrimental effect they would be having would be on themselves and possibly
their children.  In this case we take away their children, just like they
do now with alcoholics.

The intelligent thing to do is to stop wasting money on the enforcement
of unenforceable laws and spend it on educational programs.  It has been
shown that education works (look at the drop in tobacco use) and I believe
that the US could substantially reduce its drug problem in only a couple
of years.  This approach would stop making criminals of millions of casual
users who are hurting no one.

Jim Nusbaum

-- 
R. James Nusbaum, Duke University Computer Science Department,
Durham NC 27706-2591. Phone (919)684-5110.
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