BEST DRUG WAR STRATEGY IS DECRIMINALIZATION

Terry O'Neill wrote an excellent Opinion piece on April 23 proposing a
change in the "war on drugs" strategy. In my opinion, he does not go far
enough. Drug use is a public health issue and should not be a criminal
problem.

The biology of addiction to substances, including tobacco, alcohol, cocaine
and heroin, is similar; and addiction is a treatable illness, not a crime.
But given the criminal status of buying, possessing and using illegal drugs,
a multibillion-dollar illegal drug industry exists. This illegal enterprise
spawns terror in the producing countries and rampant crime in the consumer
countries like the United States. The anti-drug war is itself a
billion-dollar cottage industry. How many billion-dollar enterprises vote
themselves out of business?

The currently illegal drugs should be decriminalized. This would put the
drug cartels out of business, eliminate drugs as an equation in crime in our
country, reduce prison populations, and make it possible to employ money now
spent on the drug war for treatment.

LARRY N. LEWIS
Glenville