DRUG WAR IN PERU

Editor -- The shooting down of a plane full of American missionaries
in Peru demonstrates the immorality of America's drug war.

Drug warriors claim that the deaths of these innocent American
citizens -- a mother and her infant -- is a regrettable but necessary
aspect of their drug interdiction programs. Drug fighters say these
people are "collateral damage" in a drug interdiction effort that
saves thousands of others in the United States.

Because of drug prohibition, we have tens of thousands of "drug
deaths" every year directly caused by ill-conceived drug laws. So, the
claim that our drug war is saving lives is a lie.

History shows that all of our so-called "drug problems" are actually
the result of a counterproductive drug policy that should have been
abandoned decades ago. None of the "drug crimes" and disease currently
associated with drug addiction even existed before drug prohibition,
so the wise and moral thing would be to end this insanity
immediately.

REDFORD GIVENS

San Francisco