CORRECT QUESTIONS

To the editor Your Aug. 1 editorial "Drug War" questioned the role of
U.S. soldiers in Colombia(R)MDNM- and elsewhere as drug agents -- and
rightfully so.

The question is: Who in their right mind actually believes that anyone
- -- especially the U.S. government -- can totally eradicate the plants
used to produce illegal drugs? Most Americans cannot keep crab grass
out of their own back yards. And yet the expectation is that U.S. and
Colombian(R)MDNM- officials will honestly and successfully extract
acre upon acre of concealed coca, opium and marijuana from armed
rebels entrenched in mountainous jungle terrain. Did I miss something?

It may be surprising to the average American that federal and state
drug war expenditures now exceed $4.5 million per hour. Given that
upward of 80 percent of all illegal drug use is exclusively marijuana,
one must ask: When will policy-makers acknowledge that regulation
under a legalized system of distribution for all drugs is far more
moral, rational and humane than war?

JOHN F. WILSON

Kettle Falls, Wash.