AMERICA AND THE WORLD HAS DRUG PROHIBITION PROBLEM

Re: "The war on drugs meets the war on terrorism, hit the dying Americans"

To the Editor of the Columbus Free Press:

Kudos to Valerie Howland for her outstanding column: "The war on
drugs meets the war on terrorism, hits the dying Americans" (6-25-05).

I'd like to add that in 1904 Coca-Cola contained cocaine instead of
caffeine and sold for 5 cents a bottle. In 1904 the term
"drug-related crime" didn't exist. Neither did drug lords, drug
cartels or even drug dealers as we know them today.

In 1904 pure pharmaceutical grade Bayer heroin sold for about the
same price as Bayer aspirin. And deaths from recreational drugs were
very rare. That's because the drugs were of known quality, known
purity and known potency--just the opposite of today's black market drugs.

America and the world does not have a drug problem: we have a drug
prohibition problem.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, AZ