WAR ON POT WASTES RESOURCES

Dear Editor,

As a retired police officer, the only thought I can add to Mr.
Brown's excellent article "America needs to rethink ineffective
marijuana prohibition (Jan. 25)," is how public safety would be
dramatically improved. I have crunched the numbers and street
officers spend about 10 million hours looking for and arresting about
750,000 each year for simple possession. My profession also spends
about 10 million hours seeking and arresting 1.4 million DUIs.
Imagine if we doubled our hours for DUI enforcement by spending zero
time trying to prevent adults smoking pot in their own homes. Instead
of having 17,000 citizens slaughtered by drunk drivers, we could
nearly cut that in half.

Officer Howard J. Wooldridge (retired)

Education Specialist, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Washington, D.C.