THE WRONG MESSAGE

Editor -- Diana Conti's Open Forum piece, ``Drug War Isn't on Target,''
(June 8) was itself off target. Lumping alcoholic beverages (legal to
produce, but illegal to consume for underage youth) with illegal drugs such
as cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin, serves to obfuscate the issue and
trivialize the importance of the anti-drug message.

Underage consumption of alcohol is certainly a problem, but Ms. Conti's
approach does little to address it. Blindly linking ``alcohol and other
drugs'' sends the wrong message to underage abusers in a society that has
been down the path of prohibition only to find the ``cure'' far worse than
the problem.

The Marin Institute's agenda is clearly neo-Prohibitionist, and would dearly
love to tap into the $195 million anti-drug media campaign in its quest to
rid America once again of the scourge of demon rum. Let us address the
horrors of youthful drug abuse by focusing on the core issues, and spare
ourselves the ``gateway drug'' rhetoric that describes an entirely different
set of problems.

Like it or not, alcoholic beverages are enjoyed in this country (and indeed
around most of the civilized world) by many millions of people, and its
abuses by young people, which can be terrible and destructive, deserve to be
addressed apart from street drugs.

TOM DALLDORF

Publisher, Celebrator Beer News Hayward