POLICY CREATES GATEWAY EFFECT

Thanks for publishing Eric Knudsen's outstanding letter: "End Drug
War" (9-14-03). I'd like to add that when all types of drugs were
legally available in local pharmacies for pennies per dose, the term
"drug-related crime," didn't exist. Neither did drug lords or drug
cartels.

These were all created by our drug criminalization policies--not the
drugs.

Most marijuana users are only interested in marijuana and no other
drugs. However, they will often be offered free samples of other much
more dangerous drugs like heroin, crack cocaine and meth- amphetamines
by their sellers of marijuana.

Thus, the policy of marijuana prohibition creates the gateway effect.
Not the marijuana.

Kirk Muse,

Mesa, AZ