HARMLESS HERB

Stoner America: Six of the 10 photos used to illustrate "Generation Rx" (by
Glenna Whitley, May 19), about the death of Luke Stone, were from his
single trip to "Amsterdam: stoner Shangri-la." These photos and captions
mislead the casual reader to assume that drugs obtained in Amsterdam were
somehow related to his death. It takes reading until page 10 to find that
Luke Stone died from a combination of morphine, amphetamine, diazepam,
temazepam and oxazepam, all obtained in the United States.

If you had been writing about drug use in The Netherlands, you could have
written that:

The Dutch use marijuana at less than half the U.S. rate.

The age of first use of marijuana in The Netherlands is 20. In the United
States, it is 16.

The rate of heroin addiction in The Netherlands is less than one-third the
U.S. rate.

Since the 1970s, the average age of a heroin user in the United States has
dropped from 26 to 19. In The Netherlands, it has risen from 26 to over 40.

But you weren't writing about drug use in The Netherlands, so you should
have used different photos.

Suzanne Wills

Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Dallas