History of drug laws

Those who think tougher drug laws will solve the drug problem need to learn the relevant history and economics. For fifty-six years (1915-1971) America was alone in drug prohibition, while Europe stayed with legal drugs. It was America that developed the drug problem. (Drug Addicts Are Human Beings, by Henry Smith Williams, MD, 1929; The Drug Hang-up, Rufus King, 1972; and Agency of Fear, by Edward Jay Epstein, 1977)

Doctors used to keep their patients’ habits stabilized. Their patients continued to be successful in their marital, professional, and civic pursuits.(Williams)

Economics explains all that. In Europe, if you wanted drugs, you had to go to the drug store. In America, kids buy and sell drugs in schools, at the parties, and will make home deliveries. The street price being five or ten times the pharmacy price, kids need to sell at a profit, to be able to buy more for themselves. It’s a multi-level marketing structure, complete with friend-to-friend retailing.

Prohibition’s black market manufactures products of unknown potency. Thus, the overdose deaths. If you want your kids to live, send them to the drug store.

Wiley Hollingsworth,

Pullman