Drug laws need to reflect degree of severity

Ken Albertson tells us that the US is easing drug laws, but he doesn’t tell you that this is because America is going bankrupt, not because the authorities believe the laws are unfair.

Ken is right about one thing. Pot should have been fully legalised and controlled years ago. I don’t know why people don’t quite get that, but they don’t. As for the cost of incarceration, by Ken’s thinking, we should start only punishing four of five murderers. Think of all the money that would be saved not having to keep them on death row.

I suggested a long time ago that every country should build no-frills prison camps specifically for the people that insist on using and dealing hard drugs. Automatic sentences based on severity of offence. Pick them up, take them to night court. If they plead guilty, send them to the farm. If they plead innocent, they await a trial, and if found guilty, they go to the severest big house available.

As for Ken’s viewpoint on alcohol, “the most destructive drug of all”, consider this: probably 60 per cent of the people in the world drink at some level. Try to imagine 60 per cent of the people in the world strung out on heroin. And with heroin, there isn’t “some level”. With alcohol, some people acquire a problem. With hard drugs, they all have a problem. All of it is poison that’s killing people and tearing families apart. 

John Arnone

Yasothon