COSTS FOR DRUG WAR INTOLERABLE

The Chronicle's May 2 article "In Mexico, some stories can't be told"
reported on the tragic deaths of reporters at the hands of drug lords.
This is just a repeat of the intolerable costs of alcohol
Prohibition.

Law enforcers are just mopping the floor while the faucet is running!
Massive profits allow drug dealers and cartel leaders to be replaced
easily, and the drug war is irrelevant to drug abuse. The ones who
really care will get their drugs, anyway.

The drug lords are the biggest enemy and do far more harm than the
drugs themselves. They make the drugs more dangerous and available to
teens in ways that regulated supply would not. The 12-to-17 age group
gets illegal drugs more easily than regulated alcohol, and almost a
million of them sold illegal drugs in 2003. A similar number carried
guns. If you're a drug lord or a special interest that gets political
power, profit or employment from the drug war, it works great. For the
rest of us -- the ones who suffer from wasted hundreds of billions in
taxes and prohibition created crime, violence and corruption -- it is
a disaster.

We have the power to eliminate these drug lords and dealers and regain
control of the drugs. For the sake of the courageous reporters who
died and all of us, we must begin to discuss less risky ways to repeal
Prohibition again.

JERRY EPSTEIN

Houston