LOOK AT 'DRUG WAR'

Re: "A Culture of Murder," Sunday Page One.

Kudos to The Dallas Morning News for correctly identifying the cause of
Dallas' obscene murder rate as the "drug trade" instead of Police Chief
David Kunkle's more abstruse term, the "drug issue."

In 1900, when one could legally buy cannabis, cocaine and morphine, the
national murder rate was 1.2 per 100,000 people. It soared to 9.7 per
100,000 when alcohol was illegal. It dropped during the 1950s but soared
again after Richard Nixon declared the drug war we fight today.

The harder the drug war is fought, the more lucrative and dangerous the
drug trade. The more kids grow up without hope for a life outside the
slums, the more attractive it becomes.

Suzanne Wills

Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Dallas