DRUG USE NOT VICTIMLESS CRIME

John Marshall of Olympia, Wash., misses the mark, concerning drug crime and
placing "wires" on informants (Letters, April 16).

He quotes a misinformed Milton Friedman on drug use: " . . . (Y)ou have no
victim with an incentive to report it to police."

I read the reports every day. Marshall fails to paint the collateral damage
by using too narrow a brush.

The victims of drug abuse include unborn fetuses, children with
developmental problems, and victims of car theft, mail theft, forgery and
credit-destroying identity theft. You should talk to the date-rape victims,
the physically and mentally abused spouses and children, the innocents
mutilated in car wrecks and families who are manipulated or terrorized by
an addicted member.

Ask the parents filing the missing person or runaway report, the
needle-infected AIDS patient, or the addicts who wake up in jail fearing
they don't have the salt to start their lives all over.

This is a war, and we act like a nation of quitters. Like any epidemic, we
must combat addiction on all levels and take steps to stop the spread. When
you consider drug use a victimless crime, you are part of the problem.

Sgt. Scott Ryon, Washington County Sheriff's Office

Hillsboro