DRUG LAWS LEAD TO GUNS

Dear Editor:

As a retired Michigan police detective and education specialist with
the Washington, D.C.-based Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, I
must inform you that Mia Thomas completely misunderstands the nexus
between guns and drugs (Drugs lead to gunplay, The Record, Aug. 9).

Street drug dealers need guns to settle their disputes since they
cannot go to court.

It is drug prohibition, not the drugs themselves, that causes drug
dealers to arm themselves. The clerks who sell Canada's two deadliest
drugs, alcohol and tobacco, are not arming themselves because there is no need.

The need for guns and violence disappear when Canada becomes wise
enough to end modern prohibition.

Howard J. Wooldridge,

Frederick, Maryland