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.
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LETTER #-2

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: (trikydik)