Palmer Events Center
Government Won't Legalize Drugs
RECEIVED Mon., Feb. 2, 2009
Dear Editor,
The federal government will never legalize drugs in our lifetime because to do so would immediately expose the ineffectiveness of the drug warriors' policies and the falsity of their arguments that have been used to justify the expenditure of hundreds of billions of tax dollars on enforcement, prosecution, and incarceration. Regardless of the likelihood of this policy change or of one's position in favor of or against legalization, everyone should strongly condemn the recent use of coercion by state and federal officials who threatened to withhold funds from the city of El Paso unless its City Council quashed a resolution calling for an open public debate concerning drug legalization. These strong-arm tactics are unacceptable in a society that claims to value freedom of speech. I would like to commend state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh for being the only official who supports these basic principles of unrestricted and open political debate.
The federal government will never legalize drugs in our lifetime because to do so would immediately expose the ineffectiveness of the drug warriors' policies and the falsity of their arguments that have been used to justify the expenditure of hundreds of billions of tax dollars on enforcement, prosecution, and incarceration. Regardless of the likelihood of this policy change or of one's position in favor of or against legalization, everyone should strongly condemn the recent use of coercion by state and federal officials who threatened to withhold funds from the city of El Paso unless its City Council quashed a resolution calling for an open public debate concerning drug legalization. These strong-arm tactics are unacceptable in a society that claims to value freedom of speech. I would like to commend state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh for being the only official who supports these basic principles of unrestricted and open political debate.
Michael Guidry