NO WIN FOR DRUG-DEATH SUSPECTS

To the editor:

For those of us who have read the novel Catch-22, your story last
Sunday titled Three Arrested In Drug Death is nothing new. The cops
want to charge three men with "manslaughter by criminal negligence,"
presumably because they didn't bring their drug-poisoned friend to the
hospital after his overdose.

Yet, any user of an illegal drug will tell you that bringing an
overdosed friend to the authorities will likely result in criminal
charges all around - not praise for saving a friend's life. It's high
time to stop criminalizing use of and addiction to a certain set of
illicit drugs. Anyone can see that we're only making things worse -
just as Prohibition made America's alcohol problems far worse in the
1920s.

Keith Sanders
Via the Internet