END THE DRUG PROHIBITION

Three cheers for Robert Sharpe's "U.S. Should Follow Europe's Lead in
Drug-Law Reform," [Viewpoints, Jan. 3]. It contained some of the most
eloquent and revealing insights into the drug war that I have yet read.

People who continue to support America's total prohibition approach should
know that the drug war is the cause of much violence around the world and
in our own backyards. Drug violence is fueled by the illegal drug trade,
not by the drug user. Drug addicts don't run amok with automatic weapons,
but shootings between street dealers are all too common.

Ending prohibition does not mean that we simply throw all the laws out the
window. But it would allow us to place the drug distribution system in the
hands of physicians and scientists, rather than street punks. We've given
the prohibitionists 30 years to produce results. Let's try another tack.

Arthur Cole

Hope Valley, R.I.