DRUG WAR IS ABYSMAL FAILURE

Editor:

Mr. James Hanners is exaggerating the drug problem. It appears that he
wants everyone to be straight and to not use any pleasure producing drugs.

This is an unrealistic and unwarranted expectation. He should stop telling
us how to manage our minds and bodies.

It's really up to us. It's not his or the government's place to deny people
their pleasures, just because he doesn't approve.

Sure a lot of teenagers get booze and cigarettes but they also say (in
government surveys) that it's easier to get the outlawed marijuana from the
underground black market, then to get the legal, regulated alcohol, that is
sold in licensed, tightly monitored liquor stores.

That proves drug prohibition doesn't work and regulated distribution does.

He need look no further than television to find the driving force for
teenage alcohol use. Every child is bombarded with a zillion booze
commercials in their lifetime.

More than 90 percent of teenagers who try marijuana quit in later years and
never try any hard drugs. They tend not to use alcohol or cigarettes that
much either.

Legalizing and regulating the distribution of illegal drugs will keep them
under tight government controls. Computer monitoring how much people use
can direct the abusers to counseling and will prevent drug diversion to
children or the black market.

There are ways to control drugs but we are caught up in a wasteful drug war
because people like Mr. Hanners who are afraid of a little plant-based
pleasure. An unwarranted fear.

Kim Hanna,

Worcester, Mass.