PROBLEM IS WAR ON DRUGS

Re: "Unlevel Playing Field - Why Colombia's drug trade is a
free-trade issue," Friday Editorial.

The editorial chastising Colombian president Alvaro Uribe for his
failure to rid his country of illegal drug production leaves out the
self-evident truth that the war on drugs is a catastrophe.

Just as America decided in the 1930s that it is best to deal with the
sale and use of alcoholic beverages in an aboveboard, legal fashion,
we should adopt a similar approach to recreational drugs, which are
arguably no more dangerous than 86 proof whiskey.

One thing that the war on drugs has not done is to stop the flow of
drugs to those who want to buy them. Capitalism works. Prohibition doesn't.

Robert Sheaks, Irving