WE SHOULD WAGE WAR ON ONLY ONE DRUG - ALCOHOL

Alcohol is a lethal drug - it killed two members of my family.

My father, a white-collar alcohol-ic, lingered from a massive stroke
triggered by his torrential drinking - finally dying after two years
in a coma. He was an old 64.

My sister, a social binge drinker, died in a blinding flash of twisted
metal - the intoxicated passenger of an equally drunk driver. She was
a young 47.

Even while hoisting one during the. game or sipping with friends over
dinner, my ambivalence about alcohol is always brewing. And our
national dependence on this drug is at an alltime high.

We have a legal, socially acceptable drug that kills thousands of
Americans each year in auto fatalities, domestic violence and assault.
Now add the millions whose lives are cut short by the effects of alcoholism.

What kind of society would permit this plague to perpetuate itself
from one generation to the next? What sort of government would wage
war on drugs while granting amnesty to the harshest tonic of all?

Imagine a War on Alcohol today. Prohibition's failure would pale in
comparison to the present day rioting and criminal activity spawned if
alcohol were suddenly banned.

The War on Drugs can never be won. Some people will always find a way
to drown their sorrows, smoke away their pain or put money up their
nose.

Drug abuse should be a medical issue as long as it remains a
victimless crime. Money and manpower wasted on these draconian laws
could then be diverted to the ap-prehension and incarceration of
violent and predatory urban terrorists.

Drunkenness is voluntary madness. Until we learn how to control this
destructive yet legal drug, any war on other substances is
hypocritically insane.

Jeffrey K Tesch of Wyoming is a pur-chasing manager and free-lance
writer.