USERS SHARE SOME BLAME

The letter "Dealers Are Killers" (Letters, July 17) suggested that
drug dealers be executed.

Execution is reserved for the very worst criminals, serial killers,
for instance. It works for them, but wouldn't work for drug dealers.
First, while "customers" of serial killers do not ask to be killed,
customers of drug dealers do ask to be dealt to. Second, taking out a
dealer leaves his customers anxious to find a new dealer. If the new
dealer is also taken out, the street price will climb until it
attracts an even more reckless man.

The remedy is to do what many states did when Prohibition ended in
1933. They began to sell liquor at a price low enough to bankrupt
bootleggers but high enough to provide cash for the state, partly used
for added social services to offset the effect of legalization.

Priscilla M. Chase

Palm Harbor