THE CYCLE OF ILLEGAL DRUGS

The Oct. 24 front-page article "Acreage of drugs soars in Mexico"
showed once again that the United States' decades-long policy on drugs
will never work. Eradication of drug crops and interdiction of drugs
entering the United States raise the price of drugs. Raising the price
of drugs prompts people to participate in either growing or
distributing drugs. It is a never-ending cycle.

How many more years must our society suffer before we finally realize
that our drug culture is a health problem, not a criminal one? If
drugs became available through a health provider, the profit motive
would disappear, along with the concomitant crime it spawns.

David Marchand

Towson