GUEST POST. TIME TO END THE DRUG WAR

AWAY WITH THE STUPIDITY.  DO WE NOT LEARN FROM HISTORY?

I am pleased to have this post from my son, Craig.  He says it came form the Los Angeles Times

craigwinburn: Why doesn't the LA Times look to history as the answer to this "drug war"? Do we see any St. Valentines day massacres, or Al Capone types dying over alcohol distribution today?  Look closer and you will see that the so called "drug war" is a war for territory in which to distribute. Prohibition is the cause of the violence. on the day when alcohol prohibition ended so did the violence associated with that destructive and ineffective legislation.  We need to treat the destruction of addiction as what it clearly is, a medical and social illness, not a criminal problem.  End this failed attempt to legislate morality, Educate to make drug use as unpopular to the masses as smoking a cigar in a restaurant has become, and treat addiction as we treat other illnesses, with medication and therapy.  Where the drug laws are lax or non-existent drug use by the young is statistically less than in this country. It's a fact our entrenched drug bureaucracy, (DEA, Prosecutors, Attorneys, Prison Industry etc.) would like you to continue to ignore the facts.  By every measurable means, the war on drugs has failed. It's time to use the "L" word. Tax and regulate the use of drugs by adults that use drugs responsibly (over 85%) and use the tax revenue to treat those poor souls who cannot control their addictions.  Ask yourself this question: If heroin were legal today, would you inject yourself with this poison? If your answer is no, then why do you continue to believe that most of the rest of us do not share your wisdom? That should address the fear that everyone would become addicted if this prohibition were repealed. What do we have to lose?  We can always reinstate the failed policies we have in place now.  Time to face the obvious.