European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 8, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes june 1985 columns comments William Buckley legalizing drugs int an argument to use them two months ago in this space i attempted to accost a and very nearly got run to compress the it goes like this we Arent succeeding in keeping dope away from the american we in attempting to keep it away from the pub and Are now a criminal plus encouraging vast criminal is there then a Case for doing away with the crime by legalizing the and simultaneously mounting against its consumption a huge Campaign people who have had any experience in talking about drugs other than merely to condemn them will Tell you that some people simply Stop thinking when they read an attempt at Many letters recounted to me the horrors of drug addiction As though i had been arguing in favor of drug after a More Subtle there is much sentiment out there that if the government legalized the consumption of hard it would inevitably appear As if the people of the United states sanctioned the consumption of hard there is of course no logic in that position a society can Sanction the Sale of pistols without sanctioning their use to kill a drugstore that stocks sleeping pills does not Sanction their use for suicidal there is the lingering impression that to License is to and for that reason alone changes in the Law would need to be made with fanfare whose message was a lawyer wrote in with a novel namely that Congress pass a Law giving All americans taking heroin or cocaine 90 Days in which to Register As they would then be supplied with the but Only Ori their agreeing to sign up for rehabilitation any one unregistered As a user and caught using the drugs after the 90day limit would incur a special penalty of a very heavy the idea is Clear enough find out who the users give it to them at for As Long As it takes to break the warn others that experimentation will bring draconian an interesting not to be but it becomes clearer that Mere denunciations of the drugs simply Are not having the desired the figures Roll fifty perhaps 60 of All crime is ninety percent of illegal drugs reaching the country come in through organized businesses lose billion annually because of drug related absenteeism and mistakes made at the there Are now 4 million frequent cocaine 10 million occasional the Cost of both heroin and three years after president reagans big Antidrug Campaign was Are half what they which tells us that drugs Are More ubiquitous than Here is a problem that the hardliners have a prob Lem take Gabriel Nahas of author of several anti marijuana most stay off the confront him with what we know about the drugs we do legally three Hundred thousand people die every year because of fifty thousand at least because of alcohol and alcohol related yet there is certainly no senti ment to outlaw let alone somehow our Cul Ture has decided to come to terms with the we have lots and lots of and lots and lots of drugs floating All Over the i Pray for a and note gently that it is not a part of any solution to write me a letter to Tell me How awful drugs o1985 Universal press Syndicate James Kilpatrick political hard times ahead Tor organized labor some data recently obtained from the National labor relations Board confirm what most observers of the political scene have sensed in recent years these Are hard times indeed for organized the unions Are widely this was not always the As recently As a Public opinion poll asked this question in do you approve or disapprove of labor unions Twenty years 71 percent of the people by 1981 the approving percentage had dropped to 55 it is Well under half another recent poll found that Only 17 percent of the people have a great Deal of Confidence in labor for the Only 23 percent have a great Deal of Confidence in the the image of unions As defenders of the Little person has steadily in last years presidential the Falcio sought to deliver a massive vote to Democrat Walter the Effort a postelection poll by the new York times and lbs found that 53 percent of Blu Collar workers and 45 percent of Union households went for Ronald labors declining fortunes appear most vividly in records of the Norb on certification and desertification in such elections were held the unions won of them for a winning percentage of 73 in when elections were the unions won of them about 45 preliminary figures for 1984 Indi Cate that unions won Only 41 percent of the elections that were from labors Point of the information is even More depressing when Only the desertification figures Are Over the past five workers in collective bargaining units have petitioned the Norb for a desertification election they have contended that a Given Union no longer represents a majority of the the unions have won Only 24 percent of these showdown As recently As unions represented about 30 percent of the total civilian work by their numbers had dwindled to the authoritative Bureau of National affairs reports that predictions that unions will represent Between 10 and 15 percent of the workforce by 1990 Are some of the factors that have accounted for this decline Are easily Over the past 30 years Many of the old smokestack industries have lost employ jobs have moved from the East and upper mid West to the South and Southwest where pro Union sen tit ment is Copper and Coal mining have the potential for Union membership in these old line categories int what it used to other factors Are less precise but nonetheless Influent organized labor has a terrible problem with its Public for Many the image of Union labor is an image of a fat Union visibly taking the fifth amendment on Capitol absent the most compelling strikes and Boycotts leave the Public As one Public school teachers have lost much of the deferential regard in which they once were the strike of air traffic controllers four years ago was overwhelmingly and reagans no nonsense response to the strike was almost universally the Outlook for Trade unionism is not wholly organized labor May have lost the construction where four out of five workers Are now non but in other areas the picture is the american federation of county and municipal workers is doing Well so Are unions representing Hospi Tal workers and food and restaurant some Public relations campaigns for the Effort of the garment workers May be favourably affecting Public my for whatever it May be is that the old Days of confrontational bargaining Are just about management no longer cowers and trembles at the threat of a enlightened Union leadership under stands what companies must be Able to compete in foreign and if this Means immediate give backs in Exchange for Long Range Job so be the Good unions will survive and the nestled ones will for the rest hard Universal press Syndicate 11040 individual flt Urti my xxi