PROHIBITION IS DEADLY

Re: "Scared silent," Page 1, Feb. 13.

Additional tax dollars spent on the New Orleans witness protection program
will not solve the problem of murder in our city. As long as the drug war
continues, the killing will continue. As long as there is a high demand for
drugs, incarcerated homicidal drugs dealers will simply be replaced by new
recruits.

A great number of lives would be saved in our city if drugs were legalized,
taxed and regulated.

A more reasonable allocation of resources would be in the funding of
anti-drug-use initiatives. The prohibitionist approach has failed to make
drugs inaccessible to the public. The violent underground market, which it
has produced, needs to be dissipated. Until then, the blood will continue
to run through our streets.

Rich Page

New Orleans