PROHIBITION ADDICTS

Thank you for publishing Catherine Mann's letter (" Legalize Drugs ", Sept.
19 ). She rightly focused on Prohibition as the root cause of most of the
problems associated with illegal drugs. Prohibition has been the law of the
land for many decades. The object? Primarily to keep drugs out of the hands
of young people. The result? The " prohibited " substances are cheaper,
purer, and everywhere more readily available than ever.

When we find we cannot keep them out of our schools, nor even out of our
jails whose inmates are under 24 hour surveillance, common sense would
suggest that there must be a better way.

If a householder noted similar results after a visit from a local "War on
Bugs" company, ( exacerbation of the original problem ) common sense would
tell him he had wasted his money and should try a new way, a new company.

Unfortunantly, common sense does not play a key role when persons are in the
grip of an addiction.

I fear this is the only thing that can satisfactorily explain the absense of
reason from the direction and conduct of our national drugs policy. The
members of that unholy trinity, police, press and politicians, are equally
addicted to the heady power of Prohibition.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst