Re: Drug Legalization -- Reduces use!

[Rick Strong <strongr@child.cpmc.columbia.edu>]

Margaret Tarbet wrote:
> 
> It's a strawman, really, for the Drug Warriors [tm] to say that
> problems of abuse are unique to the drugs now banned.   That's
> simply not so.  Alcohol is much worse in its ability to intoxicate,
> ability to addict, and ability to wreak physical havoc on the
> abuser.    And of course the experience in the Netherlands
> demonstrates that people self-regulate with marajuana just as with
> booze;  marajuana  is no more a 'gateway' to more serious drugs than
> milk is to alcohol abuse.
> 

Again, I've always felt that way: substance use/abuse is similar
whatever the substance (with allowances for different characteristics of
the substance, of course, some are more physically addictive or
destructive than others.)

I wonder if there isn't now <so> much money wrapped up in keeping
drugs illegal and their price correspondingly high that we'll never
see an end to ther present policies. 

-- 

Rick Strong