RE "WHERE did killer ecstasy come from" (Jonathan Kingstone and Ian
Robertson, Oct. 15). I don't know where adulterated Ecstasy comes
from, but I do know that it is produced, in large part, by bad
government policy.

I was dismayed to learn that adulterated Ecstasy is now turning up in
Canada. In my opinion, the current drug laws are as much to blame as
the dealers who sold the bogus drug. The current situation with regard
to Ecstasy is comparable to that which existed in the U.S. under
alcohol prohibition when bootlegged "moonshine" often resulted in
products that contained dangerous adulterants that could harm, and
sometimes kill, the consumer.

History teaches that regardless of prohibition laws, people have a
natural drive to experience alternative states of consciousness.
Drugs, including alcohol, are one way to do this. The young people who
died from taking adulterated Ecstasy are proof positive that criminal
prohibitions on altering consciousness are making matters worse, not
better.

Richard Glen Boire, Center for Cognitive Liberty &
Ethics