WRONG POLICY ON DRUGS

Dear Editor,

I note that you are working in conjunction with local law enforcement and
legislative authorities to tackle the latest drug menace - Ecstasy.

And of course we are going to do it the way it has always been done - make
the penalties harsher until the problem goes away. Unfortunately there was
no examination of the effectiveness of the proposed remedies in your
article.

Lets examine two areas where this policy has been applied and see the
results.

We have tried this policy with heroin for the last twenty years or so - the
result? Heroin prices are lower than ever, heroin purity is higher than
ever, it is more available to children, there are more addicts than ever and
deaths are up.

We have tried this policy with cocaine for the last twenty years or so - the
result? Cocaine prices are lower than ever, cocaine purity is higher than
ever, it is more available to children, there are more addicts than ever
and deaths are up.

Here we have two major failures of this policy so we are going to do it
again?

Is this a joke or a government program?

M. Simon