OUTLAWING DRUGS DOES NOT WORK

To the editor:

In response to "Study: Use of inhalants on the rise among youth" (Advocate
news story, March 17):

"Drug" stories like this walk a fine line. While well-intentioned, they
will move a few citizens to demand that the substance be banned, and when
banning doesn't work, that it be criminalized. This would be a huge mistake.

Ever wonder why no one pushes airplane glue onto your kids to inhale? No
profit; it retails at about $1 per ounce at Wal-Mart. But if we take it off
the shelves, its price will rise; then, if we criminalize it, the price
will skyrocket and violent entrepreneurs will jump in.

When I was a boy, amphetamine pills sold over-the-counter for pennies. They
now sell on the street as "meth" for more than $2,000 per ounce, and "meth
labs" endanger our kids and the environment. We have a meth tiger by the
tail -- a tiger that never existed until we made it.

Each escalation of the drug war causes more societal damage than it prevents.

Kids need to hear about drugs in a way so low-key that they are not
attracted by the glitz of danger. Adults need to hear about drugs in a way
so low-key that they understand that criminalizing the drug will not solve
the problem.

John Chase

Palm Harbor, Fla.