HARSH MEASURES REQUIRED TO STOP 'DEALERS OF DEATH'

I read The Gazette's March 13 Our View, "Time for change," on the
ineffectiveness of our drug war in the United States. Dangerous drugs
have taken a terrible toll in our nation.

Considering the cost to individual lives -- the broken hearts and
homes; children abused and neglect and abandoned to Social Services
and foster care; in health care and law enforcement -- the impacts of
drug abuse are huge.

What should we do about it? The big dealers of the worst drugs should
be punished much more severely to stop them. Some people, for whatever
reasons, can't resist the temptation, so until those issues are
resolved, we must remove the temptation. How? The way we've been doing it

is stupid, expensive and
ineffective.

Singapore and probably other nations have solved the problem
effectively and inexpensively. Drug dealers are executed.

Why not? Their crime is inexcusable. What excuse is there for dealing
death? The damage they do is every bit as bad as any mass murderer, so
why are we so soft on them?

In Singapore, roughly the population of Los Angeles, they execute
80-90 people a year. Sounds tough doesn't it? In Los Angeles, there
are about 1,000 murders in the same time period, and I would guess a
large percentage of those murders are drug related, and some are
innocent bystanders.

Now, which policy is more merciful?

Elmer Dean Cozzens

Colorado Springs