Subject: Re: from TRANSNATIONAL - Satyagraha - No 9
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X-Comment: The Transnational Radical Party List
> How would legalizing heroin affect the rate of vehicular homicide?
> Think, man, think!
In Sweden, for example, alcohol is a legal drug, reportedly used there
more often than is prudent. And yet (lawyer Dorry should applaud this)
being apprehended with even a small (by U.S. standards) of alcohol in
the blood results in automatic and immediate jail time.
In the U.S., alcoholism kills more far more people than heroin addiction,
and vehicular manslaughter much higher than in Sweden where very few now
dare to venture behind the wheel if they have drunk any alcohol at all.
And BTW, the U.S. War on Drugs and its predecessors has made drug
traffiking far more profitable than in Europe, which has always tended
towards treating drug addiction, including alcoholism as a medical
rather than a criminal condition. Little wonder that most illegal
drugs now end up in the U.S., not in comparably prosperous Europe
or Japan.
Having already created so many addicts by our policies, outright
legalization doesn't hold much promise, although present and conceivable
enforcement policies have had little effect in the inner city, as anybody
can see, but any policy which promises a drastic drop in the price of
drugs would take a profit out of it, so that drug traffickers must be
the most ardent opponents of decriminalization.
*Decriminalization* would be a start. Marijuana, for example, does
pose health hazards but is not physiologically addictive, whereas tobacco
is far more addictive than either heroin or cocaine. Draconic penalties
for marijuana users (*not* for driving under the influence) do little but
perpetuate the War on Drugs bureaucracy; more emphasis on medical treatment
of addicts as opposed to prison (where drugs are readily available) might
help somewhat, and a lot in the long run, although not a crowd pleaser.
Craig Harrison, San Francisco
