DESTROYING OUR KIDS WON'T MAKE US SAFER

As a retired undercover narcotics officer with 26 years in police
work, I read with interest your April 16 article ''Falmouth sting
leaves a mark.''

It did indeed leave a mark on nine students and their families, whose
lives are now crippled if not destroyed.

Several will end up with two-year mandatory-minimum prison sentences.
All will join the 3,004 Massachusetts college applicants who cannot
get a government loan or grant for college. All will lose their
driver's licenses, so they can no longer get to school or be
gainfully employed anywhere without public transportation.

Why destroy these lives?

Though 96.7 million Americans have used marijuana, only 14.5 million
have used it in the past month. The vast majority quit of their own
volition without any intervention.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, www.leap.cc, the world's largest
organization of criminal justice professionals who know the war on
drugs is not only a failed policy but a terribly destructive one,
believes legalized regulation of drugs is a more efficient and
ethical policy than prohibition.

By treating drug abuse as a health problem rather than a crime
problem, we could actually save our children instead of condemning
them to a life crippled by arrest and imprisonment.

Jack A. Cole, Executive director

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition