DRUG WAR

Regarding ``Polk Nabs Another Meth-Making Suspect'' (Metro, May 24):

The victory that Polk County officials claimed was not really against
methamphetamine abuse, as The Tampa Tribune reported. It was a victory
against meth supply, and, if successful, it will cause a rise in price.
This, in turn, will drive off a few casual users, make abusers more
desperate for cash and entice more reckless, violent people to the illegal
meth market.

There is a lot of money in the amphetamine market now that it is illegal.
Since contraband morphs toward its stronger, more valuable form, we now
have methamphetamine. Clandestine labs make it - unreliable, unlabeled and
cheap - for the illegal market. It commands a king's ransom to buy, so the
user administers it intravenously to conserve his stash, even though
injections can transmit blood diseases such as hepatitis A.

How did it come to this? The U.S. Congress enacted the Narcotic Control Act
of 1956. Taxpayers have spent billions of dollars fighting an illegal
market that would collapse if we were to treat drug abuse as the health
issue it is. We should go back to 1955 - to before the drug war began.