Think the dealers won't be running the City in some other way? Loan sharks, gambling, prostitution, sex slaves, and disgusting enough child pedalers. Now, you take the black market economy away from a vibrant ever adapting criminal subculture, what do you think they will do? Go back to school? Get a job at Home Depot? Besides oxycontin and valium are legal narcotics supposedly controlled by the government. Those substances are being sold and used on the streets as frequently as heroin and cocaine. You can fact check that at NIDA.GOV.

Have those of you that support legalization of such hard drugs really thought through the implications? The black market economy will always go on some way or another. Except you corner it like a dog, take its bread, what do you think will happen? They will scratch and claw for every nickel and dime they can get off the streets. By the way, where do you think killers come from? Many are abandoned by addicted parents. I bet most of the 300 murders committed every year in BMORE are by young men deserted by either mom, dad, or both due to addiction or rampant transmision of HIV. In fact just about 80 percent of all children in DSS protective services are children from addicted parents. Another apalling statistic, over 70 percent of those serving time in prison tested positive for alcohol/drugs at the time the crime was committed. So, we take the dealers out of the equation, and we are still left a community ripped apart by addiction. I can understand legalizing cannabis since it does have several medicinal uses. But unless you've seen or felt the pull of a drug like cocaine or heroin, don't be so naive to think you can regulate that. No government can regulate addiction especially to these drugs.

You say well, at least, the gangs won't have anything to war about? Maybe to some extent, but lets not kid ourselves the corner boys won't go away. They'll be running something. Maybe more oxycontin and valium.

In Zurich, Switzerland, they dabled in this notion of decriminalization. They stopped it because the streets were lined with opiate addicts. Why wouldn't the rate of addiciton go up if we legalized it? How much different would this policy be from how the US Government fed the Indians barrels of alcohol while we planted them on reservations. How would it be different than when we sent our brave soldiers returning from Vietnam to VFW's to help deal with thier jones for opium? Will we be better dealers? So what, we just put danger label on it like cigarettes. Then we complicitly back big tabacco while countless lives are taken by smoking. Most local and state governments are finally crawling out of bed with big tobacco. Now, you want us to get back in with heroin and cocaine? You want me as a taxpayer to sign off to distributing and/or regulating a young mother's fix. A fix that leaves her head dangling, eyes rolling back into her head while her little boy is left to fend for himself on the gritty streets of Baltimore?

Drugs will be on the streets until the whole culture of corruption is brought down. Don't hold your breath with a one-party system here in Maryland. The best way to fight this is through taking a bite out of the demand. Treatment and preventive services can make a difference. I wish there was a sure fire way to address this issue, but there isn't. Legalization won't contain nor make the misery go away.

I do believe you care and want to see the misery subsist, but I respectfully disagree that legalization is anywhere close to a silver bullet.

You're using some bad analogies there.

OxyContin and Valium aren't legal without a prescription. People without prescriptions want to use them, that's why a black market exists.

If you want a good idea of what will happen when drugs are legal, look at alcohol. Is there a black market for alcohol? No. It disappeared quickly once prohibition ended.

Now, let's say that alcohol is more tightly controlled, where limits are imposed on how much you could buy, and where your health/behavior needs to be assessed at frequent intervals before you could buy/use... Don't you think that would create a black market? It most certainly will, and that's the situation we're in with "legal" drugs such as OxyContin.

You could still be arrested for having pharmaceuticals. We're talking about legal in the sense of alcohol; if you're an adult, you could buy it.

"Children from addicted parents."

How many children have alcoholic parents? No one is saying legalizing drugs will stop addiction. Rather, legalizing them will minimize the damage caused by the War on Drugs. How many children grow up without a parent because that parent is in jail over a drug crime?

"Cannabis has medicinal properties, coke and heroin do not."

Are you kidding me? Cocaine and heroin certainly have medicinal properties. Cocaine is CII, not CI like cannabis because it's an anesthetic. Do you see a major difference between amphetamines and cocaine? No.
Heroin is essentially morphine. As soon as it enters your brain, it turns into morphine. Now, I dare you to go tell a pain patient, say someone with fractured vertabrae, cancer, AIDS, etc, that morphine has no medicinal qualities. There are thousands, if not millions of people who use opiates responsibly.

"In Zurich, Switzerland, they dabled in this notion of decriminalization. "

Yes, they stopped it because people from all over Europe, and the world went there. They also tried prescribing heroin to addicts. The vast majority of them stopped committing crimes, got a job, and moved on with their lives. They eventually all reached a "plateau" dose which didn't require increases. The study was lauded in the addiction community, and it was(and is running) in various other countries. (Look into NAOMI in Canada)

That's all I'm willing to spend time on. But, I could pick apart your letter sentence by sentence... I have a feeling you wouldn't listen to reason regardless.

At least allow doctors to prescribe hard drugs to addicts so they don't run around committing violent crimes to get money to pay black market prices. I don't see the reason for demonizing hard drug addicts anymore than people who are alcoholics, or food addicts, or diabetic due to lifestyle (no exercise, poor food choices) or with mental health issues.
BTW, when it comes to cannabis, the law is a ludicrous pile of garbage, since alcohol is far more dangerous to life and limb. Anyone care to argue the point, or will you alcohol supremacist bigots content yourself with your usual stonewall, pretending there is nothing to discuss?

I appreciate the responses. In fact, Mr. Anonymous I did listen to what you had to say. I guess when people disagree with you, they must not listen to reason? Anyways, you brought up why most folks fear legalization. It will produce more addicts. Look at the reason Mr. Anonymous sighted for Switzerland pulling the plug on the program. Once Europeans got word that all drugs were readily available, people started invading the country. Interesting phenononom because this also takes place in New England. The state that Rodericks hails from, good old Massachusetts. This state has expansive welfare programs, and it has the problem of taking on it's neighboring states impoverished. This is just the way folks respond to hand outs. Now, you say we are legalizing heroin and cocaine, and a government agency will monitor the distribution. This is an addict's fantasy come true. The government will help you with a fix, and, of course, welfare too. You think we have a problem now with our borders?

Am I a supporter of the "war on drugs," a friend asks. No, and I don't think the approach of locking up addicts and dealers work. However, with emphasis on treatment before jail has helped to reduce the level of heroin/ cocaine use nationwide. Look up Proposition 36 or drug courts. So, don't paint me as being on a side. Criminal justice system can be very effective in stemming the issue of substance abuse.

Lastly, why do you assume that legalizing heroin/ cocaine will work out like prohibition? You are comparing apples and oranges. Let me ask you this, ever been to Lexington Market? I'm not sure exactly what time folks get there dose of methadone at UM, but several of those supposed patients walk right down the way to the market. They sit in front of the market and sell bottles of thier methadone. Just a few weeks back, the Sun reported about the black market for suboxone. These drugs really don't even get people high with the exception of methadone to an extent. Dealers actually sell suboxone on the street to heroin addicts who detox for a few days, decrease thier tolerance, so they can get high off heroin again. If there is a black market for all that, then why wouldn't this happen with heroin and cocaine?

I'm sorry sir, but your argument is weak for the legalizing of such hard drugs. It really operates under a false premise; legalizing drugs will not have the same results as prohibition. On paper it sounds great, but hit the streets for a minute. Baltimore City is one big black market, and somehow, can you honestly argue that dealers won't get a piece of the action. The biggest employer in Baltimore City aside from Hopkins is the dope man. Come on, man. This is Baltimore!!!

Also, I think my analogies linking the government to intoxicating a downtrodden group of people makes a lot of sense. Because, look at what community we are talking about legalizing hard drugs. The majority of Baltimore is black, so I guess we just give up on the community the way we did with the Indians and Vietnam Vets, right?