DARE TO SEE DRUG WAR AS ANOTHER PROHIBITION

Mr. Dnistrian's claims that the war on drugs actually does something
worthwhile are patently bogus. Heroin is universally cheaper, purer and more
abundant than ever--hardly the sign of a declining market. Overdoses are
setting records in the U.S. and around the world. Our federal government
itself professes alarm that teen experimentation with cannabis seems to be
on the rise. Of all drug war measurements, the one Mr. Dnistrian cites--the
number of casual users--is the softest, least meaningful and most difficult
to verify. A far more reliable number: The number Americans now under lock
and key is at the obscene level of two million-plus when you add those in
county jails to the prison rolls.

Mr. Dnistrian's attempt to claim the decrease in violent crime as a drug war
success is also bogus; the decline started before draconian drug laws went
into effect and is just as great in states that don't have them. The decline
is more properly related to age demographics, employment and prosperity. The
only effect our drug laws have on violent crime is to increase it by
sustaining a profitable criminal market.

Tom O'Connell, M.D. San Mateo, Calif.