MARIJUANA CRACKDOWN CAUSED 'ICE EPIDEMIC'

Thank you for printing "Ice crisis: it's sure to get worse"
(Advertiser, June 29) and the two-part series by David Waite. I
remain fully convinced that you are in denial of the cause of the 'ice
epidemic' here because you are a part of it: the bad journalism part.

Remember former state Attorney General Warren Price predicting a
coming "hard drug epidemic" as he unveiled "Operation Wipeout" in 1989
for the state's cannabis crop? No? Talk about memory loss! Any
Journalism 101 student could figure it out, but you seem baffled as if
this addiction crisis were just somehow part of the human condition.
It is a manufactured crisis like opium was in China.

"Ice" is the "bathtub gin" of drug prohibition. The harder the
prohibition, the harder the drugs. We could solve this whole mess in
short order with in-depth, truthful reporting. When, if ever, are you
going to get it?

Roger Christie Pahoa, Big Island (Ha wai'i)