BAN HASN'T SOLVED PROBLEM WITH DRUGS

To the Editor:

On Dec. 8, you wrote a piece applauding the state patrol in keeping
illegal drugs off state highways.

Please allow me to object to your statement because it might lead
some weak-minded people to think that stricter law enforcement would
do some good regarding our illegal drug problem. That is just plain
wrong. Prohibition does not work.

The same law that made alcohol illegal also made heroin illegal. It
did not work for alcohol and it will never work for heroin. The
lawmakers, those gutless politicians, again made alcohol legal in
1933 but they did not make heroin legal.

Prior to Prohibition, 1.3 percent of the population was addicted to
heroin. When Reagan started the war on drugs there were 1.3 percent
addicted to heroin, and when it was last estimated two years ago,
there still were 1.3 percent addicted to heroin.

When something does not work, it needs to be changed. If we
legalized heroin, allowed doctors to write prescriptions for it and
had them filled in a pharmacy, we could control, monitor and tax it
- -- and instead of pouring $50 billion a year down a rat hole we
could create ad campaigns and greatly increase the treatment centers
to help the addict when he/she does decide to do something about it.

Law enforcement does not work. Let's do something that does work,
and while we are at it, we can do something for ourselves -- we can
lower tax expenditures, increase tax income and lower the crime rate
since 70 percent of all crime is related to the need to get money
to buy grossly overpriced illegal drugs.

Colin E. Bayliss

Dover