LESSONS FROM PROHIBITION

Re: "A Day to Remember: Prohibition Isn't Forever", Dec. 5: Richard Evans
understands the problem. It is prohibition, and it began when our Beltway
politicians persuaded us that illegal drugs are more dangerous than legal
drugs. But if that were true, airplane glue and gasoline, dangerous to kids'
nervous systems, would be illegal. Also 200-proof ethanol and tobacco.

Rather than debate the harm caused by drug "A" vs drug "B" vs drug
"C", we should agree that no drug is free of risk, and debate whether
prohibition is the best way to manage that risk. As Mr. Evans
observes, our grandparents' generation decided 75 years ago that the
answer was "no" for ethanol. Why should it be different today for
other drugs?

John Chase

Palm Harbor, Fla.