BUSTED

Juliette Guilbert's insightful article ["Scared Straight? Or Just
Scared?" Summer 2007] can be summed up in a few words: America's drug
crusade is highly counterproductive and "drug education" in the
schools actually encourages drug use.

The effects of drug prohibition should not be a mystery to anyone
with the slightest knowledge of the history of Prohibition. The
"Noble Experiment" was promoted with the idea of "saving kids from
booze," but if anybody bothers to check the history they will find
that, during Prohibition, the United States experiencesd the worst
epidemic of teen alcoholism before or since. Thousands of young
people suffered permanent brain damage, blindness, liver damage,
paralysis and death.

An outlaw market is by its very nature beyond regulation. Repeal and
a regulated market for adult alcohol use ended criminal control of
the alcohol industry. Ending Prohibition reduced the crime rate
substantially and bootleggers disappeared from the school yards of
America, never to return.

Ending a lunatic drug crusade will have equally profitable results.

Ralph Givens

Daly City, CA