And, as the article from the Cato Institute said, many of the social problems caused by alcohol became worse during Prohibition.  If money presently spent on enforcement of drug laws were redirected into education on the consequences of drug abuse,  I'd hope that the problems would be significantly reduced.  

 

The Cato article also talked about the rise of organized crime during prohibition.  After Prohibition's repeal, the crime bosses had to move to something else, and the logical choice was drugs.  If drugs were legalized, for at least the short term, people would find it preferrable to pay the increased taxes rather than take the risk of buying drugs that had not been taxed, in situations that were not as safe, and buying drugs that were not nearly as safe.



	-----Original Message----- 

	From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 

	Sent: Wed 1/5/2005 9:52 AM 

	To: [log in to unmask] 

	Cc: 

	Subject: Re: if you're against the iraqi war...

	

	



	Kendall,

	

	    I did not make my point clear enough. I meant that alcohol being legal

	creates havoc. My logic is that if other drugs were made legal, they would

	wrreak the same havoc. Prohibitting alcohol is not a logical choice, at all. We

	just have to live with it, but not add to the havoc by legalizing other drugs. I

	hope I have cleared my position here.

	

	Bobby

	So should we go back to Prohibition?  I'm sure you're not advocating

	that.  I found this article on Prohibition, its repeal, and the repeal

	of the Volstead Act.  The arguments for the repeal of Prohibition and

	Volstead were very similar to the ones I made for currently illegal

	drugs.