The smug, upside-down logic exhibited in your Oct. 15 Viewpoint is beyond
belief. At the end of World War II, the global illegal drug market was
nearly nonexistent, not because of a drug war but because of a real war.
Today, 51 years later, illegal drugs are one of the top three global
markets. Coca and opium production has tripled since 1980 and is at an all-
time high. It doesn't appear that rabid drug prohibition championed by the
U.S. and foisted on the rest of the world through the United Nations as had
any credible success, except to increase the size of the enforcement
bureaucracy.

The reason is simple to understand. Prohibition adds to the price and
increases the rewards of trafficking. The mere existence of a "schedule
one" is what sells these products. Rohypnol will be just as easy to obtain
but will just cost more, now that it is on schedule one. And one more
thing: Why isn't alcohol also considered a "date rape" drug? Just try
getting your date to ingest the roofies without the liquor.

But then we tried a schedule-one approach to booze a long time ago and
found Prohibition caused more problems than it solved. Roofies must be
different?

Thomas J. O'Connell, MD,
San Mateo, Calif.