Dear editor,

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, or on the other hand maybe I've learned something
- -- anyhow, I think it's disgraceful when our governor throws his drug
legalization pitch to college students as he did at San Juan College
recently.

In an Associated Press article (Daily Press of March 24), he cited several
quite high numbers related to deaths last year from tobacco, alcohol and
prescription drugs, but only 3,000 from cocaine and heroin during the same
period. This is pulling numbers out of a hat and hoping they're accepted as
fact.

I see red when Johnson compares present-day drug laws to alcohol prohibition
in the 1920s. There is no rational comparative analysis possible when you
consider the sources of hard drugs for import and the source of illegal
alcohol back then.

It's been said here before. Another statistic that's often cited (and who's
to verify its accuracy?) is that there are 14 million dysfunctional families
in the United States now -- and legal alcohol is assumed to be the cause.

No one knows how many American families would become dysfunctional if the
consumption of cocaine, heroin and other hard drugs were to become legal at
your local supermarket as is booze.

At the rate these drugs slip through today's preventive measures and into
the hands of users it's conceivable that battered women, divorce, school
dropouts, violent crimes, traffic deaths and any other societal problems
causing dysfunction of families would be horrendous if the drugs were legal
and somewhat accurate statistics were accumulated.

Johnson says he's not advocating doing drugs or alcohol or even sugar, but
legalization amounts to the same thing! Further, he rationalizes, regulation
of hard drugs "in much the same way that alcohol is regulated" would keep
the United States from having to allocate resources to enforce drug laws
that he says don't work.

Probably more than those resources would have to be reallocated to the
courts and prison systems for crimes that would have to be prosecuted and a
disposition made as in alcohol-related charges today. Today's courts and
prisons can't handle even DWI cases -- could drug-related cases be treated
likewise?

The fallout from one family member's abuse of alcohol has been proven to be
disastrous to the family especially if it affects family income, as it
usually does. Legalized drugs would have no less of an effect. Is there
something about this reasoning that Gov. Johnson does not understand?
Unfortunately, disapproval of a lame duck governor's job performance is
meaningless.

(s)Bob Myers
Silver City