DRUG WAR ALTERNATIVES

MARTIN Kavanagh (Letters, May 19) takes us up to the plate, but there's no
pitch. Which faithful reader of a newspaper thinks the drug war is anything
but a waste of money? But what are the alternatives?

Counseling is not going to stop addiction for many. Putting the war under
the auspices of a Department of Health and Human Services and calling
addiction a health problem might be a start, but it's only a start.
Selective legalization might defuse part of the problem, but certainly won't
do anything for hard-core addictions. The only thing that's going to stop
the ``pharmacological McCarthyism'' is when enough people realize the real
cost of the drug war is destruction of our families, neighborhoods,
workplaces and schools.

Your newspaper could open the debate with a series of articles on
alternatives to the drug war. It's time.

J. M. Berry, Campbell