ALCOHOL IS NOT REGULATED EITHER

In his Dec. 6 response to my letter of Nov. 22, Mr. Glenn V. Hoyt defends
prohibition of street drugs by saying that alcohol is destructive and that
street drugs are "not benign." He worries that decriminalizing street drugs
"would create more access to persons susceptible to addiction."

We do not regulate alcohol. We allow alcohol to be controlled by companies
whose only interest is to maximize profits. Nor do we regulate street
drugs. Street drugs are controlled by criminals.

We must work toward a society where addictive, intoxicating substances are
controlled by the people. Government, rather than private enterprise or
criminal enterprise, should control addictive, intoxicating substances.
That way, the people will be better positioned to do effective
intervention, treatment, rehabilitation and education.

Will our problems disappear if we embrace regulated legalization? No. But
we will have a better chance at solving them. Currently, we use negative
means to solve drug-related problems, such as imprisonment to force addicts
to change their lifestyles. Regulated legalization will provide a positive
spin that will result in real solutions and less access.

Mr. Hoyt chose to characterize the proponents of legalized regulation as
"naive, wantonly self-serving or just plain galactically stupid." I belong
to Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. I invite Mr. Hoyt to look up the
organization online to see who else might favor regulated legalization. He
might be surprised to find names such as William F. Buckley Jr., Milton
Friedman, George P. Schultz, Noam Chomsky and Walter Cronkite.

Arnold J. Byron

Burlington