I take issue with your editorial, "The unwinnable war" [Opinion, July
7]. The drug war is winnable.

The powers that be who have declared the war have improperly viewed
the cause and effect relationship between illegal drugs and crime.
Before cocaine, herion and marijuana were declared illegal, there was
very little property crime in this country. Once the drug laws were
passed, the real crime rate went up. Drug overdoses, Aids
transmission, drug labs blowing up and killing innocent children, drug
dealers on the school grounds and all of the other nasty things the
drug war is supposed to prevent are, in fact,being caused by the war.

Let's go back to the time when we did not have these problems. Let's
relegalize drugs. We already know it would work. We've already proved
it.

Bob Hart-Tustin