OPED WAS RIGHT ON THE MARK

Dear Editor:

M. L. Simon's OPED: "Supporting America's Enemies" was right on the mark.
(9-19-01)

How much of the $43 million that we donated to the Taliban rulers of
Afghanistan was used to fund the terrorists' activities against the United
States? How much of what the United Nations estimates to be a $400 billion
industry, the illegal drug trade, is used to fund terrorists' activities?
$1 billion? $10 billion? We will never know for sure.

At the turn of the last century, Bayer heroin was sold in local pharmacies
for about the same price as Bayer aspirin. If we re-legalized recreational
drugs, drug lords would be out of business in a heartbeat. If we
re-legalized recreational drugs, terrorists would lose a major source of
their funding.

What message would the re-legalization of recreational drugs send to our
children? That it is not the proper role of a free country's government to
attempt to dictate to its citizens what they may or may not put into their
own bodies.

Kirk Muse
Vancouver, Wash