Addicted in Vermont- end the war on drugs !

   The governor of Vermont, Peter Shumlin, decided to devote a state -of-the-state message to a single topic ( Providence Journal editorial, Jan. 25, "  Addicted in Vermont " )  " well because I feel that strongly about it ".  Shumlin said : " let's start facing this as the health crisis it   is " ( PBS Newshour,Jan 9 ). He thinks "  this is the issue that nobody wants to talk about  ".

            Those of us " radicalized " by the tumultuous events of the late 60s feel strongly about and have never stopped talking about the foolish and expensive " war on drugs ".  The legalization of " medical " marijuana in many states should reopen this long smothered debate.  As disastrous as alcoholism is for so many people, hardly anybody talks about the blessings of Prohibition anymore.  And yet one can find wine poetry in the Bible.  All drugs-like heroin- should have a " warning "  for users.  So many  illegal drugs only puff up a police state.

          Some illegal drugs like LSD,  associated with the late Dr. Timothy Leary ,seem to open the door to a new spiritual dimension  if used safely . I recall  with euphoric affection  Leary's  luminous words I read on the front page of the Providence Journal  decades ago : " We live in a highly organized insane asylum... " . That is just one explanation for the need for drugs and alcohol.    And  the young inspired Karl Marx wrote profoundly about " alienated " individuals in capitalist society.  We all have our " opium "of choice.  Just don't go  " on the road " with it.