WE"RE TOO HYSTERICAL ABOUT DRUG ABUSE

One might assume that since drug arrests on the Turnpike are down 71 percent
in recent months that area-wide overdose deaths would be up, as more drugs
get through to users. Instead, deaths are down almost 50 percent.

This doesn't prove that drugs are good, only that no one understands the
true relationship between ever-changing "statistics".

Next month's figures may be much different as law-enforcement agencies
scramble to put the "correct" spin on things, like the recently-released
"expert" list of "commonalties among violent children". Lots of people have
found it convenient to sit back and assume that whatever skewing of figures
is going on, at least it's done by experts who would never abuse power and
only want what's best for us.

The truth is that after being told that we should be hysterical over drugs
to the point of war, all we are doing is throwing tons of money at a
burgeoning prison-industrial complex that is laughing all the way to the bank.

Paul Anderson, Chester