Web Letters: The War Against the 'War on Drugs'

I'd say that a rational approach would have all recreational drugs available in "drug stores" at numerous locations, perhaps expansions of current liquor stores and tobacconists. Entry and purchase would be open to anyone with a license. Licenses would go to any adult, 18 years old or older, who passed a quick quiz on drugs: the basics of what various drugs can do for you and what they can do to you, in physiological terms in each case. As an adjunct, real drug education would be offered in America's high schools: very short short courses to prepare for the quiz, plus serious, adult discussions of the ethical, political and practical implications of using recreational drugs. And of course, we'd need rigorous enforcement of laws forbidding endangering others while impaired from a drug. As a first step, however--indeed, that thin edge of the camel's nose heading down the slippery slope to the rational--I'll settle for decriminalized pot.

Richard Dee Erlich

Port Hueneme, CA

Thanks to the Internet, I just read an article where Portugal has legalized drugs and it has been successful endeavor.

Last night Lou Dobbs on CNN had an "expert" on describing the horror of marijuana and psychological problems it allegedly causes. I have known people that have smoked marijuana since the '70s and are productive members of society. We all have our vices, so let's legalize it, take out the criminal enterprise and stop this puritanical nonsense.

Kathleen Burke

Pittsburgh, PA

To say that it's about time is an understatement in the extreme. For half a century, the war on drugs has been almost a complete failure. I say "almost" because its real purpose was to help elect politicians, and that it did handily. As for the rest, no sane person ever believed that you could actually prevent the sale and use of drugs. It was always a fantasy.

How ironic, though, that when marijuana finally becomes legal it will not be due to common sense or good governing but to financial desperation. But I suppose one shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Bart Braverman

Los Angeles, CA

What about crack and heroin? Should we legalize those and tax them as well?

A curious respondent,

Matt Bohart

Brooklyn, NY

Texas will probably be next to last in this effort, just before South Carolina. But I know the Dallas Police Department enforces small-quantity pot laws only as a means to harass kids they don't like. (I'm white with three white sons and one adopted black son. In Dallas, even black cops seem bigoted.) This is not exactly the "equal protection" promised in the Fourteenth Amendment, but it is a step up from the ninety-nine years an old Dallas Notes editor got once for two seeds on the floor of his car. But to actually change the laws in Texas, the Republican Party is going to have to be taken over by the Libertarians. I'm a Democrat, but I'll take Ron Paul over Cornyn or Baily-Hutchison anyday.

Ted Ashley

Dallas, TX