DRUG USE AND PRODUCTION

I don't know where Lou Dobbs got his figure of
20,000 drug-induced deaths each year, but if it is true, it's a world
record and a sign the phony war on drugs is a complete failure --
certainly not a sign for optimism ("A war worth fighting," Commentary,
Saturday).

The 20,000 deaths from drugs is a tragedy, but it pales in
comparison to the 400,000 tobacco-related deaths or the 300,000
obesity-related deaths each year. The 20,000 drug-related deaths each
year is a sign that the government cannot protect its adult citizens
from themselves.

If we have 20,000 deaths a year from illegal drugs,
the vast majority of those deaths are because the drugs are illegal.
When all types of recreational drugs were legally available in local
pharmacies for pennies per dose, deaths from recreational were very
rare. That's because the drugs were of known quality, known purity and
known potency. Just the opposite of what the drugs are today on the
untaxed, unregulated black market.

Mr. Dobbs mentions that Colombia
has reduced its cocoa production by 15 percent. What he fails to
mention is the dramatic increase of cocoa production and heroin
production in Afghanistan.

It would seem to me that Mr. Dobbs, an
economist, would understand that the immutable law of supply and
demand cannot be broken or nullified, no matter how much money we
throw down the phony drug war rat hole.

Speaking of money and the drug
war, in 1969 the U.S. federal drug enforcement budget was $65 million.
Last year, it was $19.2 billion -- greater than a 295-fold increase.
(These figures don't include the cost of incarceration nor the state
and local costs.)

If coffee, which sold for 25 cents a cup in 1969,
had increased at the same rate, we would now be paying more than $75
for a cup of coffee -- more when sales tax is added.

What have we
received for our so-called investment? Nothing. Anybody who wants to
purchase recreational drugs can still do so -- just as easily as in
1969.

Kirk Muse,

Mesa, Ariz.