GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT DRUG WAR INSANITY

Thanks to writer Michael Serazio and the Houston Press for their courage
["Reefer Madness," September 30]. It takes balls to attack the perversion
of the U.S. drug laws, and your attack against the marijuana "laws" is
certainly a bold first step.

In the 90-year-old "prohibition of drugs," commerce worldwide in these
prohibited drugs amounts to some $500 billion per year.

There is no justice, no logic, no truth involved, no scientifically
justifiable reason for this drug war -- none, zero, zilch. Bankers,
government contractors and pharmaceutical houses lead the charge for the
everlasting, ever-escalating drug war. Millions of suppliers, guard union
members and pot growers supplement the call for more of our young people to
be arrested for making a nebulous choice as to their intoxicants.

After the end of prohibition, overdose deaths will dwindle to the few who
have chosen this route to commit suicide. When we break the back of the
black market trade, there will be insufficient profits to lure street
corner vendors who thrive on selling to our children.

People have used drugs for thousands of years. To set out on a 90-year
jihad to prohibit such use is not just folly, it is a crime.

Dean Becker

Houston