If the president, Congress, governors and state legislators wanted to do us a favor and help get the economy going and tackle the deficit, they would raise the tax on what for some of them is their drug of choice — booze — then lay themselves off.
Danny W. Shultz
East Brady
I am writing in response to Dr. Amesh Adalja’s Dec. 16 letter, “U.S. drug strategies wrong.”
In that letter he makes reference to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Debra J. Saunders’ column of Dec. 9 (“The war on drugs: Prohibition’s second act”) and a Dec. 7 letter from James Matson.
There is nothing wrong with religious dogma when it teaches right from wrong. It is only when it says to kill or to do harm to someone who doesn’t believe in the same dogma, whether it be Catholic, Protestant, Shiite, Sunni, Hindu, Judaism, Buddha or atheist.
When it comes to choice, it should be nature that decides. If nature decides to abort an unborn baby, so be it. If nature passes out diseases to people who won’t believe in abstinence, so be it.
Man created alcohol, illegal drugs and prescription drugs. People who use them to get high or drunk are socially sick people. They make themselves physically and mentally sick by using them. If they use too much, they die. So be it.
Laws are to teach us right from wrong. What should be the legal age for alcohol — 18, 15, 13? Should we close drugstores and let people buy drugs without a prescription?
It’s been said that only the good die young. That’s not true. So do those who use dope or who are drunks.
Danny W. Shultz
East Brady
The idea of lowering the booze age is stupidity. College presidents and other adults should teach college and high school students to have fun and enjoy themselves without alcohol or drugs. The best way to teach is by example.
The reason teenagers drink and use drugs is to have fun and enjoy themselves — in others words, to party. And, to party for them is what they have learned from adults — get drunk or high.
Parents and college presidents should learn to enjoy themselves without becoming challenged with alcohol or dope.
Danny W. Shultz
East Brady
I think feeding the rich for the past 28 years — since President Ronald Reagan took office — has come back to haunt us.
Oil, gas, utilities, groceries, farm subsides, banks, Wall Street, etc. — I don’t think replacing a president or governor is going to help.
I think we should get rid of all government “piggies.”
Danny W. Shultz
East Brady
This is in response to James H. Matson’s Nov. 8 letter to the editor, “Legalize marijuana.” In that letter, he says, “America imprisons more of its citizenry than any other country in the world. That fact makes me ashamed to be an American.”
Russia, China, North Korea and most other counties have laws against illegal drugs, and drunken driving also. Rather than through legalization, the better way to avoid jail is by not using “pot” or alcoholic beverages.
Danny W. Shultz
East Brady
Allegheny County wants to place a 10 percent tax on alcohol. Drinkers interviewed on television’s “booze news” say they will go to Butler, Armstrong or one of the other surrounding counties to do their drinking.
Those opinions show just how stupid drunks are.
If a beer costs $2 in Butler County, it will cost $2.20 in Allegheny County.
Gas now costs more than $3 a gallon. Think how many beers a drinker would have to drink just to “break even” drinking in another county.
Then the drinker would risk getting a drunken-driving ticket.
Danny W. Shultz
East Brady
I read Danny Shultz’s July 30 letter headlined “Clean up the drunks too” and felt compelled to make a few comments. The first comment is that credit should be given where credit is due.
Many people consider Shultz a single-issue fanatic with a propensity to babble incoherently. I say these people are looking at him and his literary contributions all wrong.
Shultz has spent a fortune denouncing drunks. He constantly has ads in the personals and contributes to the letters to the editor section, always targeting “drunks.”
My point is this:If ever there was a true child of an entity, then Shultz is the fruit of Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s proverbial loins. I have never seen such dogged determination and passion displayed over what is becoming more and more of a trivial non-issue.
For instance, five sober girls die in a fiery explosion because of a cell phone.
I think MADD should embrace Shultz as their poster boy and spokesperson. After all, he obviously is one of their strongest proponents.
Everything he writes is reminiscent of a MADD advertisement, and they should recognize and appreciate that in a forthright and public fashion.
James H. Matson
Butler
In regard to the July 24 article “Child caught setting fires must clean up,” the same story could apply to drunks.
Underage drinkers and legal-age adult drinkers playing with beer, wine, whiskey or dope end up destroying property and mangling, maiming, injuring and killing themselves, friends, their own family members or others.
So let’s clean the slimy, stoned, smelly slugs up.
Danny W. Shultz
East Brady
Why don’t we lock all gun owners, beer, wine and whiskey drinkers, illegal-drug users and slot machine gamblers in a closet or gun cabinet with their guns, booze, illegal drugs and slot machines and quarantine them, so the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can study them.
We all can see how contagious they are.
Danny Shultz
East Brady
On the TV Guide Channel, there is a guy who hypnotizes people on the street. I have seen advertisements for hypnosis to stop smoking. Why not use hynosis in the way immunizations are used to prevent diseases.
Shouldn’t we try to keep children from starting to smoke? Wouldn’t it be better to get them to abstain from smoking rather than trying to get them to stop later in life?
If hypnosis can work, it could be used to get them to abstain from illegal drugs, alcohol, premarital sex, teasing and bullying, cheating, stealing or whatever.
The parent could be present during the hypnosis to make sure nothing improper occurs. The hypnosis could take place in a doctor’s office or in our schools. It could be taxpayer funded so all children could be part of it.
All of us could benefit from not having to pay for them to be treated — or the costs associated with jailing them later in life.
Danny W. Shultz
East Brady