QUESTIONS SHAVER

To the Editor,

In response to Keith Shaver's letter regarding the Drug War.

I am curious to learn where Mr. Shaver gets his statistics of 42,000
deaths a year it is quite an embellishment.

Clearly this number includes accidental overdoses
pharmaceutical/hospital mistakes, tobacco and alcohol. Our own FDA
has been responsible for deaths of recent urging them to recall many
accepted drugs.

There has never been a death solely attributed to the use of
marijuana though the puritanical propaganda people don't want to
acknowledge this because it would shake the foundation of their very
closed minded belief system.

As far as families go, alcohol is the main cause of family
deterioration. The over load at battered women's shelters will attest
to that, the abused kids placed in foster homes will also.

The harsh drug laws which separate families are unjust and the real
culprit in the destruction of normal everyday functioning productive
families, now that's a crime and a shame.

It is a myth that adults who partake in a joint after a long days
work in the privacy of their own home are addicts or irresponsible
parents. Marijuana is far less mind altering and destructive compared
to the parents who drink after work and drink on weekends and have
beer in the fringe at all times ..who are the real addicts?

It all comes down to personal freedoms and intelligent choices. St.
Lawrence County is full of people who don't think twice about abusing
booze it's their way of life which is a sad waste..drinking DOES kill.

Kelli Ann Rentch Potsdam, NY

REPLY TO LETTER

Reply to LTE: Drug Deaths, published Jan. 14, 2001.

There is a lot of mention of death from drug use and I wanted to make
sure everyone is aware of the fact that cannabis has been used by
humankind for over 5,000 years and there has never been a case of
overdose from its use. That kind of knowledge is what fuels the
contempt for government we notice everywhere. When there is realistic
rules for drug use then and only then, we will start to head in the
right direction, lowering the use of drugs by education.

Too many years and too many lives have gone by fighting the war on
drugs and if you spend it the same way as in the past, we will face
an increase in failure but not a drop in drug use. We're supposed to
learn from our mistakes.

I hope to see more articles that expose the war for profit, for what
it is. My country is due for sensible realistic revolutionary change,
now. Politicians are responsible for giving away something they have
no right to give away, our Constitutional rights. The government is
too aggressive in discriminatorily caging its citizens and thus
creating growing contempt for government and its laws. Citizens have
lost their patience with the U.S. government war for profit. It is
becoming our biggest government problem due in part to the resistance
of political leaders to create healthy needed change.

I will vote for leaders who are not afraid of making the necessary
changes in our country's drug laws.

Caging your neighbor for using cannabis is a sin.

Please help end the war not escalate it.

Those who cage today may appear barbaric tomorrow.

Those who vote to cage are the problem in our society not cannibis.

Stan White Dillion, Colo.

FIGURES OVERSTATED

Dear Editor;

After reading Mr. Keith Shavers 01/14/01 letter to the editor "Drug
Deaths" I concluded that 42,000 deaths by drugs and that one in six
Americans are addicted to drugs was a little overstated. Due to the
punitive nature of the drug war exact figures are difficult to obtain
as users of illicit drugs are reluctant to come forth with
information fearing retribution from law-enforcement.

Although statistics varied from each study they were somewhat close.
I researched statistics from The National Institute of Drug Abuse
(NIDA), Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), National
Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) here is what I found. Illicit
drugs kill about 16,000 a year. Alcohol kills about 100,000 a year.
Tobacco kills about 400,000 a year. Prescription drugs kill about
150,000 a year. Marijuana kills 0, there has never been a recorded
death at any time in US history. In 1999 an estimated 3.6 million
American (1.6 percent of the population age 12 and older) were
dependent on illicit drugs and an estimated 14 million Americans were
dependent on alcohol.

If Mr. Shaver feels that his figure of 42,000 drug deaths a year
demands a continuation of the drug war then the 100,000 alcohol
deaths and the 14 million dependent on alcohol surely must demand
that we return to the grand experiment of the 20th century, alcohol
prohibition.

Lee Monnet Ogdensburg, NY