Joe Florez has had an on-and-off relationship with methamphetamine for more than 20 years and, at times, a rocky association with his family because of it.

He accepts and deals with it but doesn't hide it. The main thing he wants to say about the drug issue is the public wants something to go away that the powers that be don't.

"It's that simple. Hands higher than a county or state education and substance abuse treatment workers want to keep things as they are," Florez said. "And why? Money."

He is convinced that the so-called drug problem would disappear if drugs that are already a controlled substance went to the next phase and were legalized.

"If these things were prescribed, people who really are addicted to them could get medical help from a doctor and treatment for what they say is a disease. Now, you get punished and labeled a criminal forever for doing the same thing people do with a prescription antidepressant or with a martini after work."

No one is willing to even have that discussion, and no one ever seems to ask why, he said Thursday as he worked on fixing a bigger problem at the moment — the ignition system of his car.

"People think there would be some kind of free-for-all," he said. "There's a free-for-all now. Legalizing gets equated with condoning use. Legalizing would add some actual control to what are already listed by the government as controlled substances.

"Meanwhile, the 'collar dollars' collected from the users and petty dealers who get busted keeps the cops and courts funded and busy and off really important work," he said. "The multibillions keep being raked in by the cartels who supply the drugs that make our pharmaceutical industry look like the five and dime."

Florez is quick to point out he doesn't condone the use or the crime that often comes as a byproduct of the drug scene.

"But the crime and the entire scene would go away if they were legalized," he said. "Like the last prohibition, half the people who went to the speakeasies had never drunk alcohol before prohibition and didn't after it ended. It lost a lot of its allure when it became legal."

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E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com