What a breath of fresh air was Jim Barlow's column calling for
decriminalization of drugs ("U.S. drug policy creates criminals,"
Business, Oct. 26). I presume his use of "decriminalization"
rather than "legalization" was a reflection of the strict control
that can be exerted under "decriminalization."

That we have chosen a system that makes drugs easily available to
the very children we want most to protect is madness. For 20
years the experts have told us that children have easier access
to illegal drugs than to alcohol; this would be dramatically
reversed if drugs were only available through a strict,
prescription-like system.

Doctors would not be recruiting children to help them deliver the
prescriptions. Children would not have to grow up in a
drug-lord-created climate of crime, violence and corruption.
But the people are going to have to organize. Many bureaucrats,
politicians and special interests will fight desperately to
protect the power and profits they reap from prohibition.

Jerry Epstein,
Vice President, Drug Policy Forum of Texas
Houston