DOBBS' DRUG WAR IS A BIT OUTDATED

TO THE EDITOR:

Thanks for your alternative news source. In response to the commentary by
Lou Dobbs (Aug. 19, "The war on drugs is still a war well worth fighting,"
p. 2), I want to point out the following: Dobbs' arguments are based on
tired, specious reasoning that is decades out of date. Teen-agers may be
ignorant and uneducated, but they aren't stupid. They do not for one minute
believe that the answers they give to a supposedly anonymous questionnaire
will not be reviewed by drug police looking to bust somebody.

Whether that's actually true or not, their answers will be more reflective
of what they think they are supposed to do and think, rather than what they
actually think or do. The numbers will change as the current mores of the
society shift back and forth.

Conclusions as to actual drug use cannot be correctly drawn from having
school administrators ask teen-agers whether they smoke pot. If the number
of deaths - 20,000, quoted by Dobbs - has any credence at all, he should
quote his source. But even giving him that number, the total number of
alcohol-related traffic deaths in this country approaches 30,000 per year
(National Highway Safety Council), and the deaths directly related to
tobacco smoking tops 500,000 (American Cancer Society).

Alcohol kills half as many people each year as all illegal drug use
combined. Tobacco, 25 times as many - numbers that leave his basis for
illegalization in the distance. So, correct me if I'm wrong, but according
to Dobbs' reasoning that things should "become illegal because they are
clearly wrong," why is it that alcohol and tobacco are legal, and smoking
pot can get you a jail sentence and ruin your life?

The real message that Dobbs gives us is that what we are doing doesn't
work, so we need to spend a whole lot more money doing a whole lot more of
the same thing. Well, thanks but no thanks, Dobbs. It's a new century, and
we need a new perspective.

TOM PHILLIPS 37206