FAILED 'DRUG WAR'

[Regarding "Big Names Sign Letter Criticizing War on Drugs" (June 10)]:

The "war on drugs' makes Prohibition look like a roaring success.

It has made the United States into the world's highest per capita jailer of
its own people.

And while drug warriors express concern for children, an unregulated black
market in drugs does nothing to protect young people --- drug dealers are
unlikely to ask for identification, as merchants of legal drugs like
alcohol and tobacco are required to do.

Billions of dollars have been wasted on this drug war that could have gone
to fund programs to help people with the disease of addiction.

I do not want my children to-grow up in a police state created in the name
of a drugfree world. It is time for the United States, as well as the
international community, to rethink its drug policies.

TIMOTHY J. MEEHAN.
Toronto.

Drug prohibition has clearly failed. We must instead legalize and control
the distribution of drugs. (This suggestion will not please those who
profit from the present system.)

Crime levels would fall. More money would be available for education.
Pressure. on police, courts and prisons would drop. The dosage and quality
of drugs could be controlled. And drug-taking would be deglamorized.

ALUN BUFFRY. Norfolk, England.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)