LEGALIZING RECREATIONAL DRUGS BRINGS UP QUESTIONS

To the editor:

We have had almost nine decades of drug prohibition, over three decades of
the war on drugs, we have spent almost a trillion dollars, and yet we have
more drugs at cheaper prices on our streets than ever before.

This country represents five percent of the world's population but 25
percent of world's prison population. We have more people in prison than
France, Germany, Japan, England, and Spain combined. Almost 70 percent of
the prison population is there for drug-related charges.

Should drugs remain illegal? Our present drug policies support the price of
illegal drugs which is responsible for the billions of dollars that flow
into our banking, mercantile, and political systems. This drug money helps
maintain much of the value of our stock market and mutual funds, and gets
politicians elected. It also gives competitive advantage to those who have
access to it over those who have to pay retail for their financing.

Access is enjoyed by major players in all these venues, from Citibank and
Westinghouse to Unocal, via bond and Treasury bill prices.

Remember, the so-called "drug lords" or producers collect only the
wholesale price, which is a small part of the total. The rest of those
dollars are laundered through businesses patronized by you and me. As for
those who get caught violating these laws; they're just collateral damage.
Sorry 'bout that. Of course they are also reasons for the support of drug
laws by Wakenhut and the prison guard unions. (Wakenhut is a private
organization that builds and operates prisons).

So the question becomes, are we going to continue this course of action?
All indications say yes. It is pretty hard to win this war seeing that it
ignores 70 percent of the users and dealers.

Of the almost 900,000 who have been arrested this year on drug charges,
most are white and of those who are imprisoned, some 130,000 are mostly
black and other minorities. There are over a million blacks in prison
today. Is race and class a factor in the enforcement of our drug laws? And
if not, how do we prove that to skeptics?

Clifford Wallace Thornton Jr.

Hartford, Conn.

Mr. Thornton is president of Efficacy, a public policy think tank. His
letter is in response to a column by Bart Adams published Friday, "What If
We Legalized 'Recreational' Drugs?"