Dutch Drug Lesson

To the Editor:

In "TeenAgers and Marijuana; Scaring Them Straight Has Lost Its Edge"
(Week in Review, Sept. 14), Dr. Robert L. DuPont states that the gateway
concept describes how drug use progresses rather than why it happens. That
distinction is too often overlooked.

One contributor to the progression from marijuana to hard drugs is their
shared black market. An individual who has to go to the black market to buy
marijuana finds it just as easy to buy other drugs.

The Dutch set up a drug policy intended to separate the hard and soft drug
markets. The rate of hard drug use in the Netherlands is now remarkably low
compared with ours, while the rate of marijuana use is about the same even
though it's quasilegal. Could we take a lesson from that?

STEVE WELLCOME
Bolton, Mass.