REGULATE AND TAX MARIJUANA SALES

City Councilman Rod Tam compares the bed-and-breakfast controversy to
the failure of alcohol prohibition ("B&Bs need permits with
regulations," Star-Bulletin, Sept. 30), saying that regulation works
better than prohibition.

We agree.

Policy makers should reform our drug laws for exactly the same reason.
Our government has spent billions of dollars on law enforcement and
incarceration over the last three decades.

After all that expense and effort, drugs are cheaper and easily
obtained.

The first step should be to regulate and tax the sale of marijuana, in
much the same way that alcohol and tobacco are regulated.

Jeanne Y. Ohta

Executive director Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii