'DEVASTATING' POLICIES

The letter by Chris Hammett Oct. 13 against drug legalization is sad. He
says he has found Christ yet shows a lack of compassion. Yes, drugs can
cause harm (1,000 people die a year from aspirin) but the harm wrought
through prohibition policies is devastating.

The drug war has expanded our police forces and their powers exponentially.
We are now so lacking in compassion we find it necessary to imprison cancer
and AIDS patients. We have become so hysterical in this drug-war our DEA
just seized 40,000 pounds of birdseed.

There is an insanity of very scary proportion here. Do you still believe
the government? The same government that burned the folks at Waco? The same
government that held hostage the Washington, D.C., Medical Marijuana
Initiative vote for 10 months? Are you aware our government is prepared to
engage in biological warfare again, but this time against its own citizens
(in Florida, using the anti-marijuana fusarium fungus)?

Education is the key. We spend three times more on our prisoners than on
our school children. We are the most incarcerated population on the planet
- - because of the drug war.

It is ignorance that leads to abuse whether it be of a spouse or a
substance. Prohibition breeds only violence and it is we, the people, who
become the victims. And the targets.

Allan Erickson, Eugene, Ore.