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=09Hand Out StopSmoking Drugs

=09Our government will allow some agencies
to distribute new needles to drug addicts, free condoms
to some schools and different agencies to allow safe
sex against AIDS and prevent unwanted pregnancies.
=09How about this: Daily, 3,000 teens start smoking,
1,000 of whom will die from smokingrelated diseases
during their lifetimes. Pharmaceutical companies claim and
advertise that Nicotrol or Nicorettes will help you quit or
control this terrible act. I believe that our government
which allows the manufacture of cigarettes should in
turn distribute Nicitrol and Nicorettes to any citizens, free
of charge, who elects to kick this dreadful habit. Drug
stores sell these items for about $50 a packet, which some
people cannot afford.
=09Cigarettes are a narcotic; within seven seconds of
taking one puff the nicotine enters your blood stream.

=09=09Mike Bascetta
=09=09Spokane

=09Could Booze, Tobacco Pass FDA Tests

=09Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey has said that the
scheduling of marijuana (determination of its medicinal
availability) should not be determined by public opinion,
but should be decided by the FDA. He stated that it was
dangerously unscientific for nonexperts to make these
decisions.
=09If that's the standard, let's apply it to America's two
most common pleasure drugs, alcohol and tobacco. If
tobacco was subjected to FDA scrutiny it would be a
Schedule I drug, prohibited just like heroin because it is
extremely addictive and has no medicinal value.
=09Alcohol would join cocaine in Schedule 11, having
some medicinal value but still having enough potential for
abuse to warrant full criminalization if used for recreation.
=09This points out the hypocrisy of America's drug
enforcement system. The recreational drugs endorsed by
the majority have been exempted from the scheduling
standards that harshly criminalize users of drugs like
marijuana. Marijuana is currently used by about 20
million Americans and has been used at one time or
another by 50 million others, including our president and
House speaker.
=09All drugs should be subjected to the same standards
of criminalization determined by a factual review of their
potential for causing harm. Equal protection under the
law demands that America's doublestandard must end.

=09=09Johanna Wools
=09=09Grand Coulee

=09Fight Drugs By Banning Tobacco

=09Lately there seems to have been a lot said about
marijuana being a gateway drug, and that many people
who smoke pot usually go on to other, harder drugs and
become a menace to society. A senator from Georgia said
something to this effect in the March edition of Dear Abby.
=09Using the good senator's logic, it is mostly likely that
the first drug people use is, tobacco. Then they move on
to alcohol, then to marijuana, then to heroin or cocaine
or whatever. Therefore, tobacco is the true gateway drug,
not marijuana. Since marijuana cannot be legalized
because of the potential for increased use of dangerous
drugs, it would also be true that if tobacco was outlawed
we would have a drop in drug use of all kinds because we
would be getting rid of the real gateway drug.
=09Don't hold your breath on this one though. The
tobacco industry would never let it happen.

=09=09Ed Stowe
=09=09Couer d=92 Alene, ID