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481 lines
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The following is reprinted from The Pragmatist, August 1988. Some of the
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examples and data are dated, but the arguments are still valid.(rbs)
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TWELVE REASONS TO LEGALIZE DRUGS
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There are no panaceas in the world but, for social afflictions, legalizing
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drugs comes possibly as close as any single policy could. Removing legal
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penalties from the production, sale and use of "controlled substances"
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would alleviate at least a dozen of our biggest social or political
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problems.
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With proposals for legalization finally in the public eye, there might
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be a use for some sort of catalog listing the benefits of legalization.
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For advocates, it is an inventory of facts and arguments. For opponents,
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it is a record of the problems they might be helping to perpetuate.
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The list is intended both as a resource for those wishing to participate in
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the legalization debate and as a starting point for those wishing to get
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deeper into it.
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Are we ready to stop wringing our hands and start solving problems?
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1. Legalizing drugs would make our streets and homes safer.
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As Jeffrey Rogers Hummel notes ("Heroin: The Shocking Story," April 1988),
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estimates vary widely for the proportion of violent and property crime
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related to drugs. Forty percent is a midpoint figure. In an October 1987
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survey by Wharton Econometrics for the U.S. Customs Service, the 739 police
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chiefs responding "blamed drugs for a fifth of the murders and rapes, a
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quarter car thefts, two-fifths of robberies and assaults and half the
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nation's burglaries and thefts."
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The theoretical and statistical links between drugs and crime are well
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established. In a 2 1/2-year study of Detroit crime, Lester P. Silverman,
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former associate director of the National Academy of Sciences' Assembly of
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Behavior and Social Sciences, found that a 10 percent increase in the price
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of heroin alone "produced an increase of 3.1 percent total property crimes
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in poor nonwhite neighborhoods." Armed robbery jumped 6.4 percent and
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simple assault by 5.6 percent throughout the city.
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The reasons are not difficult to understand. When law enforcement
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restricts the supply of drugs, the price of drugs rises. In 1984, a
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kilogram of cocaine worth $4000 in Colombia sold at wholesale for $30,000,
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and at retail in the United States for some $300,000. At the time a Drug
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Enforcement Administration spokesman noted, matter-of-factly, that the
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wholesale price doubled in six months "due to crackdowns on producers and
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smugglers in Columbia and the U.S." There are no statistics indicating the
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additional number of people killed or mugged thanks to the DEA's crackdown
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on cocaine.
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For heroin the factory-to-retail price differential is even greater.
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According to U.S. News & World report, in 1985 a gram of pure heroin in
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Pakistan cost $5.07, but it sold for $2425 on the street in America--nearly
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a five-hundredfold jump.
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The unhappy consequence is that crime also rises, for at least four
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reasons:
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* Addicts must shell out hundreds of times the cost of goods, so they
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often must turn to crime to finance their habits. The higher the price
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goes, the more they need to steal to buy the same amount.
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* At the same time, those who deal or purchase the stuff find themselves
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carrying extremely valuable goods, and become attractive targets for
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assault.
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* Police officers and others suspected of being informants for law
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enforcement quickly become targets for reprisals.
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* The streets become literally a battleground for "turf" among competing
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dealers, as control over a particular block or intersection can net
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thousands of additional drug dollars per day.
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Conversely, if and when drugs are legalized, their price will collapse
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and so will the sundry drug-related motivations to commit crime. Consumers
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will no longer need to steal to support their habits. A packet of cocaine
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will be as tempting to grab from its owner as a pack of cigarettes is
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today. And drug dealers will be pushed out of the retail market by known
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retailers. When was the last time we saw employees of Rite Aid pharmacies
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shoot it out with Thrift Drugs for a corner storefront?
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When drugs become legal, we will be able to sleep in our homes and walk
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the streets more safely. As one letter-writer to the Philadelphia Inquirer
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put it, "law-abiding citizens will be able to enjoy not living in fear of
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assault and burglary."
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2. It would put an end to prison overcrowding.
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Prison overcrowding is a serious and persistent problem. It makes the
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prison environment, violent and faceless to begin with, even more dangerous
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and dehumanizing.
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According to the 1988 Statistical Abstract of the United States, between
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1979 and 1985 the number of people in federal and state prisons and local
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jails grew by 57.8 percent, nine time faster than the general population.
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Governments at all levels keep building more prisons, but the number of
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prisoners keeps outpacing the capacity to hold them. According to the
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Federal Bureau of Prisons' 1985 Statistical Report, as of September 30 of
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that year federal institutions held 35,959 prisoners-41 percent over the
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rated prison capacity of 25,638. State prisons were 114 percent of
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capacity in 1986.
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Of 31,346 sentenced prisoners in federal institutions, those in for drug
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law violations were the largest single category, 9487. (A total of 4613
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were in prison but not yet sentenced under various charges.)
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Legalizing drugs would immediately relieve the pressure on the prison
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system, since there would no longer be "drug offenders" to incarcerate.
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And, since many drug users would no longer need to commit violent or
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property crime to pay for their habits, there would be fewer "real"
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criminals to house in the first place. Instead of building more prisons, we
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could pocket the money and still be safer.
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Removing the 9487 drug inmates would leave 26,472. Of those, 7200 were
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in for assault, burglary, larceny-theft, or robbery. If the proportion of
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such crimes that is related to drugs is 40 percent, without drug laws
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another 2900 persons would never have made it to federal prison. The
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inmates who remained would be left in a less cruel, degrading environment.
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If we repealed the drug laws, we could eventually bring the prison
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population down comfortably below the prison's rated capacity.
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3. Drug legalization would free up police resources to fight crimes
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against people and property.
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The considerable police efforts now expended against drug activity and
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drug-related crime could be redirected toward protecting innocent people
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from those who would still commit crime in the absence of drug laws. The
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police could protect us more effectively, as it could focus resources on
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catching rapists, murderers and the remaining perpetrators of crimes
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against people and property.
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4. It would unclog the court system.
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If you are accused of a crime, it takes months to bring you to trial.
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Guilty or innocent, you must live with the anxiety of impending trial until
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the trial finally begins. The process is even more sluggish for civil
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proceedings.
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There simply aren't enough judges to handle the skyrocketing caseload.
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Because it would cut crime and eliminate drugs as a type of crime,
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legislation would wipe tens of thousands of cases off the court dockets
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across the continent, permitting the rest to move sooner and faster.
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Prosecutors would have more time to handle each case; judges could make
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more considered opinions.
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Improved efficiency at the lower levels would have a ripple effect on
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higher courts. Better decisions in the lower courts would yield fewer
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grounds for appeals, reduing the caseloads of appeals courts; and in any
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event there would be fewer cases to review in the first place.
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5. It would reduce official corruption.
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Drug-related police corruption takes one of two major forms. Police
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officers can offer drug dealers protection in their districts for a share
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of the profits (or demand a share under threat of exposure). Or they can
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seize dealer's merchandise for sale themselves.
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Seven current or former Philadelphia police officers were indicted May
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31 on charges of falsifying records of money and drugs confiscated from
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dealers. During a house search, one man turned over $20,000 he had made
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from marijuana sales, but the officers gave him a "receipt" for $1870.
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Another dealer, reports The Inquirer, "told the grand jury he was charged
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with possession of five pounds of marijuana, although 11 pounds were found
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in his house."
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In Miami, 59 officers have been fired or suspended since 1985 for
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suspicion of wrongdoing. The police chief and investigators expect the
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number eventually to approach 100. As The Palm Beach Post reported, "That
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would mean about one in 100 officers on the thousand man force will have
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been tainted by one form of scandal or another."
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Most of the 59 have been accused of trafficking, possessing or using
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illegal drugs. In the biggest single case, 17 officers allegedly
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participated in a ring that stole $15 million worth of cocaine from dealers
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"and even traffic violators."
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What distinguishes the Miami scandal is that "Police are alleged to be
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drug traffickers themselves, not just protectors of criminals who are
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engaged in illegal activities," said The post. According to James Frye, a
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criminologist at American University in Washington, the gravity of the
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situation in Miami today is comparable to Prohibition-era Chicago in the
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1920s and '30s.
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It is apt comparison. And the problem is not limited to Miami and
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Philadelphia. The astronomical profits from the illegal drug trade are a
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powerful incentive on the part of law enforcement agents to partake from
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the proceeds.
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Legalizing the drug trade outright would eliminate this inducement to
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corruption and help to clean up the police's image. Eliminating
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drug-related corruption cases would further reduce the strain on the
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courts, freeing judges and investigators to handle other cases more
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thoroughly and expeditiously.
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6. Legalization would save tax money.
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Efforts to interdict the drug traffic alone cost $6.2 billion in 1986,
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according to Wharton Econometrics of Bala Cynwyd, Pa. If we ad the cost of
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trying and incarcerating users, traffickers, and those who commit crime to
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pay for their drugs, the tab runs well above $10 billion.
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The crisis in inmate housing would disappear, saving taxpayers the
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expense of building more prisons in the future.
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As we've noted above, savings would be redirected toward better police
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protection and speedier judicial service. Or it could be converted into
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savings for taxpayers. Or the federal portion of the costs could be
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applied toward the budget deficit. For a change, it's a happy problem to
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ponder. But it takes legalization to make it possible.
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7. It would cripple organized crime.
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The Mafia (heroin), Jamaican gangs (crack), and the Medellin Cartel
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(cocaine) stand to lose billions in drug profits from legalization. On a
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per-capita basis, members of organized crime, particularly at the top,
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stand to lose the most from legalizing the drug trade.
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The underworld became big business in the United States when alcohol was
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prohibited. Few others would risk setting up the distribution networks,
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bribing officials or having to shoot up a policeman or competitor once in a
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while. When alcohol was re-legalized, reputable manufacturers took over.
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The risk and the high profits went out of the alcohol trade. Even if they
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wanted to keep control over it, the gangsters could not have targeted every
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manufacturer and every beer store.
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The profits from illegal alcohol were minuscule compared to the yield
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from today's illegal drugs. They are the underworld's last great,
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greatest, source of illegal income--dwarfing anything to be made
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fromgambling, prostitution or other vice.
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Legalizing drugs would knock out this huge prop from under organized
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crime. Smugglers and pushers would have to go aboveboard or go out of
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business. There simply wouldn't be enough other criminal endeavors to
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employ them all.
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If we are concerned about the influence of organized crime on
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government, industry and our own personal safety, we could strike no single
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more damaging blow against today's gangsters than to legalize drugs.
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8. Legal drugs would be safer. Legalization is a consumer protection
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issue.
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Because it is illegal, the drug trade today lacks many of the consumer
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safety features common to other markets: instruction sheets, warning
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labels, product quality control, manufacturer accountability. Driving it
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underground makes any product, including drugs, more dangerous than it
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needs to be.
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Nobody denies that currently illegal drugs can be dangerous. But so can
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aspirin, countless other over-the-counter drugs and common household items;
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yet the proven hazards of matches, modeling glue and lawn mowers are not
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used as reasons to make them all illegal.
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Practically anything can kill if used in certain ways. Like heroin,
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salt can make you sick or dead if you take enough of it. The point is to
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learn what the threshold is, and to keep below it. That many things can
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kill is not a reason to prohibit them all--it is a reason to find out how
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to handle products to provide the desired action safely. The same goes for
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drugs.
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Today's drug consumer literally doesn't know what he's buying. The
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stuff is so valuable that sellers have an incentive to "cut" (dilute) the
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product with foreign substances that look like the real thing. Most street
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heroin is only 3 to 6 percent pure; street cocaine, 10 to 15 percent.
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Since purity varies greatly, consumers can never be really sure how much
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to take to produce the desired effects. If you're used to 3 percent heroin
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and take a 5 percent dose, suddenly you've nearly doubled your intake.
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Manufacturers offering drugs on the open market would face different
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incentives than pushers. They rely on name-brand recognition to build
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market share, and on customer loyalty to maintain it. There would be a
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powerful incentive to provide a product of uniform quality: killing
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customers or losing them to competitors is not a proven way to success.
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Today, dealers can make so much off a single sale that the incentive to
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cultivate a clientele is weak. In fact, police persecution makes it
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imperative to move on, damn the customers.
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Pushers don't provide labels or instructions, let alone mailing
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addresses. The illegal nature of the business makes such things
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unnecessary or dangerous to the enterprise. After legalization,
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pharmaceutical companies could safely try to win each other's customers--or
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guard against liability suits--with better information and more reliable
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products.
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Even pure heroin on the open market would be safer than today's impure
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drugs. As long as customers know what they're getting and what it does,
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they can adjust their dosages to obtain the intended effect safely.
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Information is the best protection against the potential hazards of
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drugs or any other product. Legalizing drugs would promote consumer health
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and safety.
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9. Legalization would help stem the spread of AIDS and other diseases.
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As D.R. Blackmon notes ("Moral Deaths," June 1988), drug prohibition
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has helped propagate AIDS among intravenous drug users.
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Because IV drug users utilize hypodermic needles to inject heroin and
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other narcotics, access to needles is restricted. The dearth of needles
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leads users to share them. If one IV user has infected blood and some
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enters the needle as it is pulled out, the next user may shoot the
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infectious agent directly into his own bloodstream.
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Before the AIDS epidemic, this process was already known to spread other
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diseases, principally hepatitis B. Legalizing drugs would eliminate the
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motivation to restrict the sale of hypodermic needles. With needles cheap
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and freely available, the drug users would have little need to share them
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and risk acquiring someone else's virus.
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Despite the pain and mess involved, injection became popular because, as
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The Washington Times put it, "that's the way to get the biggest, longest
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high for the money." Inexpensive, legal heroin, on the other hand, would
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enable customers to get the same effect (using a greater amount) from more
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hygienic methods such as smoking or swallowing--cutting further into the
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use of needles and further slowing the spread of AIDS.
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10. Legalization would halt the erosion of other personal liberties.
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Hundreds of governments and corporations have used the alleged costs
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of drugs to begin testing their employees for drugs. Pennsylvania Rep.
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Robert Walker has embarked on a crusade to withhold the federal money
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carrot from any company or agency that doesn't guarantee a "drug-free
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workplace."
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The federal government has pressured foreign countries to grant access
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to bank records so it can check for "laundered" drug money. Because drug
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dealers handle lots of cash, domestic banks are now required to report cash
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deposits over $10,000 to the Internal Revenue Service for evidence of
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illicit profit.
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The concerns (excesses?) that led to all of these would disappear ipso
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facto with drg legalization. Before drugs became big business, investors
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could put their money in secure banks abroad without fear of harassment.
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Mom-and-pop stores could deposit their cash receipts unafraid that they
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might look like criminals.
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Nobody makes a test for urine levels of sugar or caffeine a requirement
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for employment or grounds for dismissal. However, were they declared
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illegal these would certainly become a lot riskier to use, and hence a
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possible target for testing "for the sake of our employees." Legalizing
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today's illegal drugs would make them safer, deflating the drive to test
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for drug use.
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11. It would stabilize foreign countries and make them safer to live in
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and travel to.
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The connection between drug traffickers and and guerrilla groups is
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fairly well documented (see "One More Reason," August 1987). South
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American revolutionaries have developed a symbiotic relationship with with
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coca growers and smugglers: the guerrillas protect the growers and
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smugglers in echange for cash to finance their subversive activities. in
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Peru, competing guerrilla groups, the Shining Path and the Tupac Amaru,
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fight for the lucrative right to represent coca farmers before drug
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traffickers.
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Traffickers themselves are well prepared to defend their crops against
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intruding government forces. A Peruvian military helicopter was destroyed
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with bazooka fire in March, 1987, and 23 police officers were killed. The
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following June, drug dealers attacked a camp of national guardsmen in
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Venezuela, killing 13.
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In Colombia, scores of police officers, more than 20 judges, two
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newspaper editors, the attorney general and the justice minister have been
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killed in that country's war against cocaine traffickers. Two supreme
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court justices, including the court president, have resigned following
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death threats. The Palace of Justice was sacked in 1985 as guerrillas
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destroyed the records of dozens of drug dealers.
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"This looks like Beirut," said the mayor of Medellin, Colombia, after a
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bomb ripped apart a city block where the reputed head of the Medellin
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Cartel lives. It "is a waning of where the madness of the violence that
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afflicts us can bring us."
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Legalizing the international drug trade would affect organized crime and
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subversion abroad much as it would in the United States. A major source
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for guerrilla funding would disappear. So would the motive for kidnapping
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or assassinating officials and private individuals. As in the United
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States, ordinary Colombians and Peruvians once again could walk the streets
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and travel the roads without fear of drug-related violence. Countries
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would no longer be paralyzed by smugglers.
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12. Legalization would repair U.S. relations with other countries and
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curtail anti-American sentiment around the world.
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a. When Honduran authorities spirited away alleged drug lord Juan Matta
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Ballesteros and had him extradited to the United States in April, Hondurans
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rioted in the streets and demonstrated for days at the U.S. embassy in
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Tegucigulpa.
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The action violated Honduras's constitution, which prohibits
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extradition. Regardless of what Matta may have done, many Hondurans viewed
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the episode as a flagrant violation of their little country's laws, just to
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satisfy the wishes of the colossus up North.
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b. When the U.S. government, in July 1986, sent Army troops and
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helicopters to raid cocaine factories in Bolivia, Bolivians were outraged.
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The constitution "has been trampled," said the president of Bolivia's House
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of Representatives. The country's constitution requires congressional
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approval for any foreign military presence.
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c. One thousand coca growers marched through the capital, La Paz,
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chanting "Death to the United States" and "Up with Coca" last May in
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protest over a U.S.-sponsored bill to prohibit most coca production. In
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late June, 5000 angry farmers overran a U.S. Drug Enforcement
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Administration jungle base, demanding the 40 American soldiers and drug
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agents there leave immediately.
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U.S. pressure on foreign governments to fight their domestic drug
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industries has clearly reinforced the image of America as an imperialist
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bully, blithely indifferent to the concerns of other peoples. To Bolivian
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coca farmers, the U.S. government is not a beacon of freedom, but a threat
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to their livelihoods. To many Hondurans it seems that their government
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will ignore its own constitution on request from Uncle Sam. Leftists
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exploit such episodes to fan nationalistic sentiment to promote their
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agendas.
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Legalizing the drug trade would remove some of the reasons to hate
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America and deprive local politicians of the chance to exploit them. The
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U.S. would have a new opportunity to repair its reputation in an atmosphere
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of mutual respect.
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=============================================================================
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Message-ID: <161306Z09091993@anon.penet.fi>
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Newsgroups: alt.drugs,talk.politics.drugs
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From: an33392@anon.penet.fi (El Poeta)
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Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 16:10:18 UTC
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Subject: 12.reasons + 3 more
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[intro deleted -cak]
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My only objection is that some of them are USA oriented, but I
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realize that either all the EC countries agree with legalizing
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drugs (that is hard to happen) or the USA have to take the first step.
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The last three reasons are mine, you can (ought to) freelly
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reproduce them anywhere, and even corrections are wellcome (my English
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is not the best).
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[12 original reasons deleted -cak]
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THREE MORE REASONS
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13. Legalization would prevent children from consuming drugs.
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They can get them now in the black market -- it is impossible to
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control. If drugs were sold legally through pharmacies, black market
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|
would be inexistent, so children would have it harder to get drugs, and,
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even if they could manage to get them, drugs would be safer (no
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adulteration, impurities, etc), and certainly better than inhaling glue
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or gasoline.
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14. Legalization would encourage pharmaceutical companies the research
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of safer and healthier drugs.
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|
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Well, if you discover a drug which produces the same effect as
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|
other one but is safer, you will win the customers of the other
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|
companies, and hence increase your benefits (and at the same time the
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|
health of your customers). Perhaps the government ought to subsidize
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drug research towards substitutes for current recreational drugs safer,
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healthier and less or not addictive.
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15. Legalization could teach people to live safe with drugs.
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Last but not least, the money saved from the WOSD, or just the money
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from drug taxes (well, they would be taxed, of course) could be redirect
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to the cure of drug addicts (if they want, I mean), the subsidies for
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drug research, and also to teach people the _true_ real problems
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associated with drugs, and the responsible and knowledgeable use of
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them.
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/\^/\
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Hope you enjoy with this. Have a nice day. \|_|/
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V
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<+>|
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Poeta |
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