Interdiction Insanity

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 31 Jan 2003 08:25:50 GMT
[A letter to the editor in response to an op-ed in the Berkshire Eagle]

The September 9 issue contained a column by Ronald Brownstein, "Bush-Fox lead assault on cartels". Insanity is characterized as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Hence, attempting to beat the drug cartels by more and more interdiction is plainly insane.

Making it harder to grow and distribute drugs does nothing but raise the price. This pours even more money into the cartels' pockets, and corrupts even more police, both Mexican and American. Mexico's new president, Vincente Fox, knows this. He is on record as saying that drugs should and will be legalized. He's only working with the anti-drug crazies because until then it's politically expedient to do so.

Legalize drugs and the cartels will disappear overnight. Without the cash cow of black market drug sales, they will be left with no way to fund their operations. Legalize marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy, the whole ball of wax. If you're still suffering from an addiction to controlling other people's lives, regulate and tax them like alcohol. Turn your attention to providing realistic information to prevent drug abuse and voluntary treatment options to help cure it.

Adults own their bodies. What they choose to ingest is nobody's business. Laws criminalizing the possession/sale of vegetable extracts by/to peaceful adults are an abomination. They have no place in a free country.

Bill St. Clair
bill@billstclair.com

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