UNDERLYING PROBLEM NEEDS FIXING

Nice thoughts about the Tulia disaster (April 5 editorial), but you missed
the underlying reason it happened.

For my entire life, this society, with the politicians leading the charge,
has been demonizing anyone who uses or sells illegal drugs. Thus, when
juries can "strike a blow" against illegal drugs, they go overboard.

The true cancer is the use of prohibition as an approach to some dangerous
drugs. Prohibition guarantees the plentiful existence of drugs and drug
dealers. I know. I spent 15 years on the front lines of the war on drugs.

We in law enforcement are simply mosquitoes on the butt of an elephant as
we try to make a difference in America's drug problem.

Let us return to an approach which employs personal responsibility, not
more prisons.

Howard J. Wooldridge, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Austin