REGARDING KERRY Wilensky's March 12 "My Word": There are three levels
at which we can direct our drug-abuse abatement efforts: 1.
interdiction, 2. incarceration or 3. education. The first two do not
work.

We interdict an estimated 10 percent of the incoming flow of drugs at
a stupendous expense to the taxpayer. We incarcerate young people who
are convicted users/distributors. Does the problem go away? Of course
not. And why not?

As Wilensky states in his on-the-mark essay, as long as there is a
coolness, a panache to using drugs by our young people, there will
continue to be a demand, ergo, a supply. No getting around it.

As I recently discussed with an Orlando juvenile judge, who had that
day sentenced a 13-year-old to incarceration per the law, interdiction
is not the answer and neither is incarceration. Until young people
understand that it is not cool to take drugs, there will be a constant
proliferation of drug abuse.

Take the schoolkids to jails to talk with convicted abusers. Take them
to hospitals and asylums where the "bummed-out" wrecks can be observed
and interviewed firsthand. Show them what really happens to abusers,
and we may just be able to get the point across that drugs are not
cool.

Peter H. Renner,
ORLANDO