CAN'T JUST QUIT

I reread Tony Norman's June 7 column (" 'The Wire' Showed the Fallacy
of Drug War") and don't know whether to be confused or angered. If he
is stating that the war on drugs is not a success, I cannot disagree.
If he is stating that HBO's fictional series should be used as the
basis to abandon the current legal system (flawed as it may be), I'm
astounded.

It's a fictional series. Using actors from this series to sit on a
Justice Department panel and taking their comments seriously is
ludicrous. Using citizens, law enforcement and judicial officials who
have been involved in drug cases to discuss the system's problems
would seem to be a better use of our money.

Placing drug users/abusers/low-level dealers in jail may not be
helping them solve their problems or ease their addictions. But in the
past year (on multiple occasions and with different children), I've
seen "close up" how parents' drug use affects the lives of their
children. The effects are unnerving.

Would I like to see better programs to get drug users back into the
mainstream? Absolutely. But to just abandon our current system and
wait until we come up with a better solution (based on an
international commission headed by a group that probably lives in
mostly sheltered neighborhoods) is not an option.

CHUCK PREMICK

Hampton