DRUG PROHIBITION

To the Editor:

Re "In Mexico, Scenes From Life in a Drug War: Monterrey's Habit"
(Op-Ed, Oct. 17):

Ricardo Elizondo Elizondo's essay about the drug war in Mexico says
that Mexico must take notice of its own drug use problems and that
"there can be no solution until we come to terms with the truth."

I am sure that is true, but there is a larger truth at work that
trumps all others in the drug war: We must end the folly of
prohibition -- that is, end the drug war -- or there will be no solution.

All of the harm and horror associated with the drug issue that Mr.
Elizondo wrote of are really a function of prohibition.

The case has been incontrovertibly made elsewhere. The drug war must
go. We all know it; only those with a stake in it want it to continue.

D. H. Michon

St. Paul