Katie Collman, a ten year old Crothersville, IN girl was murdered because she allegedly witnessed drug activity (http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=2908865&nav=9TahW2m6). If not for the continuing War on Drugs, Katie Collman would be alive today.

While the killer of Katie Collman must bear responsibility for his monstrous actions, when will those who continue the War on Drugs accept any responsiblity for the consequences of their actions?

During Prohibition if someone stumbled upon a still or a bootlegger's warehouse, they'd be lucky to escape with their lives. Out of desperation some people drank wood alcohol and went blind or died. Organized crime received a shot in the arm from the revenues made possible by Prohibition. All the deaths and mayhem, crime and corruption during Prohibition were predictable and preventable, and in fact ended with Prohibition. Why is that concept so difficult to understand when the drug in question is not alcohol, but some other substance?

The danger of volatile meth labs run by people with little or no lab skills and jerry-rigged apparatus would disappear with the re-legalization of drugs. Just as still explosions and contaminated booze became a thing of the past with the end of Prohibition, so to would meth labs, killings to hide drug use or to protect illicit drug dealings.

The best outcome of this tragedy would be for the killer(s) of Katie Collman to pay for this heinous act and end the War on Drugs that made this horrible act possible.

About the author: Paul was the Libertarian candidate for Congress, 2nd District of Indiana, in 1996.