LISTING DRUG WAR RESULTS

The Chronicle's Aug. 20 Page One article, "Federal drug charges double in
15-year span," quoted Attorney General John Ashcroft's assertion that this
indicated that the federal drug laws are helping to catch the serious
criminals and keeping them behind bars longer.

Yet, just like all the publicity given to large drug busts, this merely
demonstrates a certain level of activity by the feds in prosecuting. In the
real world, the success of an enterprise is measured by results.

The first noticeable result of our war on drugs is that drugs are cheaper
and more readily available now than ever before. The U.S. prisons have been
filled to the point where we now imprison 25 percent of the world's prison
population -- at an annual rate of $25,000 per prisoner.

Also, drug prohibition is funding a huge and sophisticated tax-free and
unregulated industry worldwide.

Instead of moralizing, we should take a reasoned look at our "drug problem"
in relation to other societal problems. There are 140 times as many people
who die from tobacco addiction every year as from drug addiction, 34 times
as many who die from alcohol-related causes and 20 times as many who die
from legally-prescribed drugs.

The predominant substance abused in connection with violent crimes is
alcohol. And deaths caused by efforts to enforce drug prohibition far
outstrip the deaths from drug addiction.

We should not squander our limited resources on the futile effort to
legislate people's appetites, but treat drug addiction just like any other
addiction -- as a health problem.

Ken Salzman
Houston