[Mpls] Drugs in Minneapolis/What's a Mayor to do?

[Michael Atherton]

Jordan S. Kushner wrote:

>  My post did not take a position about whether drug laws should 
>  be enforced or should exist, but did acknowledge more rationale 
>  for enforcing drug laws than immigration laws because of public 
>  health and safety issues. 

Not that I disagree with Mr. Kushner, but I think that it's
necessary to point out that immigration laws do have an important
link to public health (although in the past the link has been
used fallaciously to discriminate against some groups).

One of the arguments for NOT cracking down on illegal immigrants
in Southern California was that doing so would force people
further underground so that they would avoid using public health
clinics to get treated for infectious diseases.

It might be reasonable to argue that in terms of interpersonal
effects immigration is even more of a public health concern than
drug use, given the state of public health in many third world
countries.

Note: I believe that immigration is an important and integral
component of American society and that one of the most negative
outcomes of 9/11 was the reduction of the number of student
visas.

Michael Atherton
Prospect Park