Re "U.S. Justices Halt Drug Roadblocks," Nov. 29: In its finding that
roadblocks used for catching people with illicit drugs violate the 4th
Amendment, the Supreme Court perhaps not only enunciated the sanctity
of the right of privacy but may have also inched our nation a bit away
from the sorely misguided war on drugs.

The court took away one arbitrary tactic of law enforcement that made
Indianapolis (and other places using it) more like Cold War Berlin
than a city in a free democracy.

Americans must realize that some people will choose to become
intoxicated with drugs other than alcohol, and as long as there is
this demand someone will supply the substances. Unless drug users
present harm to others, they should be treated just as one whose drug
of choice is alcohol.

Education, treatment for the afflicted who choose it and strict
regulation are the only means a society can have of "controlling" drug
use. Until there is this realization, the only thing standing between
our children and drugs are people who are willing to risk imprisonment
and in many cases willing to kill or risk being killed in order to
reap the huge profits drug prohibition makes possible.

Would you hire such a person to baby-sit your child?

William W. Read,
Pasadena