PROHIBITION MAY CAUSE MORE DAMAGE

Regarding Stephen Wallace's Your Turn column "Marijuana
decriminalization poses a clear & present danger," illegal drugs are
not uniformly more dangerous than legal drugs. One example is that
"model airplane glue" is available at several stores at a price so low
no one sells it on the street. But if it were driven underground, like
marijuana, its price would rise to enable the violence and corruption
that attends any lucrative, illegal market. No drug is without risk.
Rather than debate the merits of each substance, we should debate
whether prohibition causes more societal damage than it prevents.

John Chase

Palm Harbor, Fla.