SUPPLY MEETS DEMAND

Re the March 15 letter, "Drug supply and demand":

Aggressive marketing can create a greater demand, but no one in his or her
right mind creates a supply of a product that there is no demand for.

The statement, "There was never a demand for cell phones or TV remote
controls until they were introduced" is erroneous. Dick Tracy's two-way
wrist radio is a good example of the first demand for a cell phone. And
lazy people were figuring out ways to change the channel on their TVs
without getting off of their couches long before the electronic remote came
into existence.

Supply is quite analogous to demand. As the price of a good goes up, the
quantity of the good available also goes up.

The prohibition of any substance makes it a risky business to deal with
that substance. The riskier it is to deal in a substance, the more money
the dealer wants for his/her risk.

Rick Meredith
Tampa

DRUG USE IS NOTHING NEW

The writer of the March 15 letter, "Drug supply, demand," suggests that in
his day we "had never heard of drugs." Perhaps he lived in some type of
special vacuum that blinded him to the millions of Americans who have used
alcohol and tobacco throughout the history of our republic.

Many adults find the use of alcohol fraught with undesirable side and
aftereffects. Thus millions of consenting adult citizens exhibit a
preference (read "demand") for substances that may be illegal.

He suggests that we can solve our problems with drugs by "striking hard" at
the dealers. The federal and state governments are in their 30th year of
"making drug dealing in America an unpleasant activity."

Stephen Heath
Clearwater