POWERFUL LURE OF THE FORBIDDEN

Thanks for publishing Richard Page's thoughtful letter, "Legalizing
Drugs" (Nov. 16).

I am sure that many will claim that legalizing our now illegal drugs
will increase drug usage. I submit that it will not.

Before marijuana was criminalized via the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937,
the commissioner of narcotics, Harry Anslinger, testified before the
U.S. Congress that the United States had a total of 100,000 marijuana
users. Now the U.S. government estimates that at least 107 million
Americans have used marijuana.

People, especially children, want what they are told they cannot have.
The lure of the "forbidden fruit" is very powerful.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.