The free-market answer to the drug problem:

Total freedom.  Wouldn't people rather take safer drugs that give the same kind of high?  How about heroin that you don't have to inject -- but you can't overdose?  How about an alcohol high without the hangover or physical damage to your liver?  How about marijuana that - - - O.K..  It would be hard to improve on marijuana's safety, but perhaps you could get it out of your system faster?  So for those who want safer drugs, allow the market to work and put the old-fashioned dangerous drugs out of business by old-fashioned competition. For those who worry someone somewhere will be having a good time, to hell with them.  For those who worry that people will quit working to indulge these drugs, wake up.  Many already do.  And video gaming and the internet itself are proving to be even more habit-forming than drugs. --LRW, April 1, 2002, 16:29:38