ELEPHANT REMAINS COZY IN LIVING ROOM

Judging from the paucity of letters commenting on the Rev. Charles Kiker's
June 29 column, "Proverbial elephant threatens to trample Tulia," I'd say he
is right: Nobody will acknowledge the elephant.

The drug war is much like our attempt to stamp out alcohol in the 1920s.

Consider the resolution of the Women's Organization for National Prohibition
Reform, passed unanimously at its first convention in April 1930:

". . . (W)e are convinced that National Prohibition, wrong in principle, has
been equally disastrous in consequences in the hypocrisy, the corruption,
the tragic loss of life and the appalling increase of crime which have
attended the abortive attempt to enforce it; in the shocking effect it has
had upon the youth of the nation; in the impairment of constitutional
guarantees of individual rights; in the weakening of the sense of solidarity
between the citizen and the government which is the only sure basis of a
country's strength."

A market cannot be destroyed by making it more profitable, and that profit
corrupts both sides of the fight. As in the 1920s, the arrestees are poor
and powerless, sometimes not choirboys.

But why destroy the life of a man - and his family - because he is not a
choirboy?

John Chase

Palm Harbor, Fla