ANOTHER CASUALTY OF THE DRUG WAR

RE "HOMICIDE fight centers on drug trade" (Page A1, Jan. 12): During
a raid of a suspect's Dorchester home, one detective, spotting a
child, says, "Let him sleep. Because he'll never forget it." You can
bet that 4-year-old will never forget seeing his father dragged off
and his house ransacked. One of every three African-American males
born today will have similar contact with the legal system, mostly
because of the so-called war on drugs, a trillion-dollar,
multi-decade crusade that has made no dent in either the supply of or
the demand for drugs.

The pathos in Maria Cramer's article is heartbreaking, as unemployed
carpenters and other nonviolent folk do exactly what their
hard-pressed predecessors did nearly a century ago during the
violence-creating era of Prohibition. The predictable,
community-destroying violence stems not from the drugs, but from the
policy of prohibition.

Are murderous gangsters dealing alcohol or cigarettes?

Bill Fried

Somerville