PROHIBITION BOUND TO FAIL

I was impressed to see retired American police officer Howard
Wooldridge speak out against wrong-headed drug prohibition policies (I
apologize for drug czar, Jan. 24) in which he calls the American
policy on drug prohibition the most dysfunctional and immoral since
slavery.

I find it astonishing that both Canada and the U.S. continue to
support a policy of prohibition on drugs when it is so well accepted
that prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s was a catastrophic failure.
Alcohol prohibition in the 1920s gave organized crime its biggest
boost. Drug prohibition today, as alcohol prohibition was in the
1920s, is a complete failure -- it has created a vicious industry that
preys on our children.

I call on our government to stop supporting the development and growth
of organized crime.

Bill Martin

Gimli