DRUG WAR DOESN'T WORK

To the Cigar,

I'm writing about Redford Givens' outstanding letter: "America's war
on drugs a failure" (Dec. 1).

According to Edward Behr the author of: "Prohibition: 13 Years That
Changed America," prior to the era known as alcohol prohibition, there
were about 300 legal alcohol distilleries. During our alcohol
prohibition era from 1920 to 1933, the authorities shut down more than
179,000 illegal distilleries. For every legal alcohol distillery that
operated prior to the prohibition era, about 600 illegal distilleries
were shut down during the prohibition era.

When is the last time you had a story about an illegal alcohol
distillery being shut down? When is the last time you had a story
about an alcohol seller having a gun battle with his distributor or
competitor? Probably about 1933, the year they ended the disaster
known as alcohol prohibition.

Kirk Muse