ESCALATING THE PENALTIES WON'T FIX DRUG PROBLEMS

This letter is in response to the July 22 editorial, "Appeal Or Repeal."
The law making students ineligible for federal grants, work-study money and
U.S.-backed and subsidized student loans because of students' past drug
convictions (a marijuana citation, for example) is just as fraudulent as
the rest of America's lunatic drug crusade.

Congress should repeal the law. In fact, Congress should repeal all drug
prohibition laws because every drug law causes a hundred times more
troubles than the drugs they seek to ban.

The evidence clearly shows that drug prohibition is a monstrously
counterproductive policy. Something is seriously wrong when the only
response to a failing drug war is to escalate the penalties to draconian
levels.

Redford Givens
San Francisco, Calif.