THIS IS YOUR WEEKLY ON DRUGS

Dear Editor:

I just finished reading the July 6-12 "This Is Your Country on Drugs"
issue cover to cover, and I am both stunned and delighted. The state of
drug prohibition is a very hot topic these days, yet it's one that the
mass media are reluctant to handle. I'm glad to see that the L.A. Weekly
isn't afraid to step forward and give this issue the time it deserves.

Adam Wiggins, Pasadena

Dear Editor:

Re: Michael Simmons' "One Toke Over the Line." Thanks for taking some
bull's-eye shots at America's lunatic drug war. Prohibition poses as a
moral crusade, but it is based on lies, dissembling and noxious
propaganda. It is a destructive policy serving no useful purpose. When
drugs were legal, addicts held regular employment, raised decent
families and were indistinguishable from their teetotaling neighbors.
When addicts used cheap, pure Bayer Heroin, overdoses were virtually
unheard-of.

Thanks for exposing our moronic prohibitionists.

Redford Givens, San Francisco

Dear Editor:

Re: Jerry Stahl's "Confessions of a Celebrity Dope Fiend." I rather
enjoyed this sarcastic, ironic, sadistic article. It's nice to see an
article that does such a good job of giving an inside look at the path
to self-destruction.

Angela Hancock, Los Angeles

Dear Editor:

The Dean Kuipers story "Less Than Zero" is amazing! I agree with his
observations completely. Life has become far more complex, and people do
not have the time -- or make time -- to think about what would truly
benefit society as a whole. We have become more and more selfish and
self-righteous, succumbing to easy "solutions" to our "problems." I am
referring to the "shits," of course, and rooting for the "Johnsons"!

Irma Martinez, West Covina

Dear Editor:

Congratulations on your decision to devote your Independence Day issue
to the drug war as a way of twitting Americans for their hypocrisy. I
have only one minor correction to your introductory editorial: The drug
war didn't start with Ronald Reagan; it was originally declared, in
1972, by Richard Nixon as a way to punish his multiple and varied
political enemies; the pertinent history is documented in Dan Baum's
carefully researched "Smoke and Mirrors" (Little Brown, 1996). Because
the distractions of Watergate intruded, Nixon was never able to really
use his creation; Ford and Carter were indifferent to it. You are
correct in the sense that Reagan rediscovered it, but the concept,
design and weaponry for the drug war had all been created for him by the
first Nixon administration, more than 10 years earlier.

Tom O'Connell, M.D., San Mateo