[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.