FLAWED APPROACH

Suggesting that we "raise the price of alcohol" to impede teen-age
alcohol access belies the fact that licensed dealers who handle the
drug alcohol don't sell to high schoolers, thanks to legal regulation
of their businesses.

Regulation of risky drugs makes good sense. But we can't regulate
those drugs unless they are legal to possess and to distribute.

Legalizing currently illicit drugs assures that most all dealing will
move off the unregulated street and into licensed businesses that can
be easily monitored by state and local authorities. And it would
immediately resolve a major dilemma for teen-agers.

That is, current zero-tolerance drug war policies assure that far too
many teen-agers who make the dubious choice of experimenting with one
or more illicit drugs will be arrested by police and saddled with a
lifetime criminal record.

STEPHEN HEATH

(Drug Policy Forum of Florida)

(Clearwater, Fla.)