WASTE OF MONEY, LIVES

I wish to compliment your publishing of Dick Snider's column on April 28,
favoring the legalization of narcotics. I feel that open public interest in
this subject is long overdue.

I am a college science teacher who has taught extension classes to
prisoners at the federal prison in Leavenworth. About 80 percent of these
prisoners were there on drug charges. After discussing it with other
instructors, I am convinced this system is a waste of men's lives and
taxpayers' money. Either there is a vast amount of public misinformation on
the dangers of drugs, or (heaven forbid) there is a nationwide conspiracy
by law enforcement officials to get money from grants and confiscating
private property.

- -- JAMES E. THOMPSON, Highland.