LOOK TO HISTORY FOR A CLEAR VIEW

Re: Sound, balanced policy lessens illegal drug use and Drug series was
skewed, letters, Aug. 7.

Both sides will make our eyes glaze over if they base their position on the
percentage of U.S. kids using certain drugs, then versus now. The database
is so complex that either side can pick the numbers it likes and ignore the
rest.

So let's approach from a political direction. Compare the list of countries
backing away from the U.S. model of repression to the list of those moving
closer to it. We have Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Portugal,
Germany, Spain and the Netherlands versus China, Pakistan, Iran,
Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Those backing away are all Western
democracies.

Another approach is from a historical perspective. Read paragraph two of
the resolution passed unanimously by WONPR (Women's Organization for
National Prohibition Reform) at their first conference in April 1930:

"We are convinced that National Prohibition, wrong in principle, has been
equally disastrous in consequences in the hypocrisy, the corruption, the
tragic loss of life and the appalling increase of crime which have attended
the abortive attempt to enforce it; in the shocking effect it has had upon
the youth of the nation; in the impairment of constitutional guarantees of
individual rights; in the weakening of the sense of solidarity between the
citizen and the government which is the only sure basis of a country's
strength."

By 1933 WONPR had 1-million members and Prohibition was dead.

John Chase, Palm Harbor