POISONOUS POLICY

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Your article "City cop scandals dash drug trials"
(Metro, Dec. 24) clearly shows how our backward drug policy is the core of
our drug problems.

We prohibit drugs, which creates a profitable, virulent black market, and
then even our police, who are in charge of eliminating that black market,
get sucked into the allure of fast money. So how are we supposed to win a
war that manifests the very problems it is intended to eliminate?

If we were to have a regulated system of drug distribution, we would
completely eliminate drug dealers, corrupt cops and the violence that often
erupts between the two. We could then use doctors to focus all our energy
on what is supposed to be the real problem with drugs - abuse.

Joel W. Johnson