WE NEED DRUG POLICIES BASED ON COMMON SENSE

Dear Editor,

In your Feb. 5 editorial supporting the war on drugs, you labeled several
illegal drugs, including cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines,
as "narcotics".

For centuries, the word narcotic only referred to drugs that, in sufficient
dosage, induce sleep or stupor, such as opiates or barbiturates. Then,
sometime after the passage of drug laws in the 20th century, a curiously
circular definition for the word was added to the dictionary. The new
definition of narcotic includes all drugs prohibited by law, whether
"narcotic or not."

This verbiage serves propagandists well. Only by the use of such cognitive
blinders can our drug laws equate industrial hemp with heroin, yet
arbitrarily omit dangerous drugs like tobacco and alcohol. This muddled
thinking has wrought a colossal drug policy failure that costs society far
more than the "narcotics" problem itself.

It's time to cut our losses in the war on (some) drugs and construct new,
more cost-effective drug policies based on logic, compassion and common sense.

Larry A. Stevens

Springfield