PROHIBITION DEADLY

Editor: Re: "Drug deaths rising" (Feb.10). The prohibition of alcohol
was the source of "bathtub gin" that killed, blinded and crippled
thousands. Our current drug prohibition policies are the source of
the lethal heroin mixtures that are killing so many drug users today.

Drug prohibition is the reason the drugs like heroin are of unknown
quality, unknown purity and unknown potency. When pure
pharmaceutical-grade Bayer heroin was legally available in pharmacies
and grocery stores for pennies per dose, we didn't have black market,
bootleg drugs.

When we go into a grocery store or pharmacy we can be 99.99 percent
assured that we will get the product the container says we will get.
This is not so for black market products.

For the sake of our children, we need to end our counterproductive
drug prohibition policies.

KIRK MUSE

MESA, ARIZ.