FAILED DRUG POLICY

Congratulations to Tribune columnist Steve Chapman for exposing the
futility and negative consequences of the "war on drugs" ("Reality
intrudes on the drug war," Commentary, Feb. 15). Criminal penalties
have proven ineffective in reducing manufacture, sales and use. Our
court and prison systems have been inundated and overburdened. Many
youths are serving lengthy jail terms, to no productive end. The "top
brass" remains largely untouched.

This is a current version of alcohol prohibition, which we assigned to
the dust bin more than half a century ago.

Thomas P. Sullivan, Chicago