WEALTHY AMERICANS AND DRUG USE

I am baffled by the economics of the illegal drug trade. If expenses
include raw material, manufacturing, transportation, distribution and
protection, where does the profit arise? What we read in print and
see on TV is an inner-city market of junkies and venturesome,
suburbanite teens, sporadic usage by middle class adults and
uninhibited usage by the thrill-seeking or stressed-out wealthy.

There can't be much money in selling to junkies and teens so, if
there are a big profit to be made, then it has to come from middle
class and wealthy users. If that is so, then the citizens who are
considered to be the bedrock of our society are at the same time the
cash cow for the drug trade. If the middle class and wealth are
supposed to be what we aspire toward, why worry about the effects of
drugs on our society when drugs have already infected the society's
movers and shakers with little consequences to them?

If drugs are indeed a problem, then our efforts to control them
should be directed at the source of drug profits. If we choose not to
do that, legalizing drugs should not be such a frightening prospect
to consider because they seem to not to have done harm to our most
prominent citizens.

- -- Chester Baran, Gary, Ind.