OUT IN THE OPEN

I never ceased to be amazed when an editorial such as "Which of these
things is not like the other?" appears and expresses the opinion of
someone who clearly has not researched the subject about which he
writes. This one must have been concocted over a three-martini lunch.

Gov. Gary Johnson's position and that of the harm-reduction movement
cannot be described simply as "legalization," which conjures images of
a wide-open, unregulated market, much as we have today.

When the nation's headlines tell us of a raging AIDS epidemic, much of
it driven by intravenous drug users; black market heroin ravaging our
youth; the billions of hard-earned tax dollars being sent to further
fuel a civil war in Colombia, which threatens the lives of American
troops; and the hundreds of billions of dollars wasted on this
experiment called the "war on drugs," here and abroad; surely a
reasonable person must at least consider less harmful options.

Harm-reduction proponents believe that you can't control what you
can't see. Bring the black market into the open and it can be controlled.

Under Gov. Johnson's plan, marijuana would be regulated and taxed.
Produced by American farmers, it would provide a much-needed infusion
of cash into our agricultural industry, instead of sending these
hundreds of billions of dollars abroad, untaxed. This alone would
decrease drug-war expenditures dramatically and consequently reduce
the taxpayers' stake in this quixotic endeavor.

Honest, informed medical data would then drive the debate and policies
would be pursued that reduce consumption of all harmful substances,
prioritized by their true harm to society, not based on hysterical
"drug war" propaganda, pork-barrel politics, money and racism.

Give the American people the facts and they will make the right
decision, in spite of the government's smoke-and-mirrors propaganda
campaigns.

MIKE PLYLAR

Kremmling, Colo.