BETTER WAY TO PROTECT OUR YOUTH

TO THE EDITOR: An advertisement published in The Oklahoman on March 31 by
the Office of National Drug Control Policy and titled "An Open Letter to
Parents" quoted prominent organizations speaking of the dangers and
drawbacks of marijuana use. I agree with everyone of these quotes, although
I suspect a few used questionable statistical methods to arrive at their
figures. I also agree that parents are "the anti-drug" and that marijuana
use has many dangers and should be discouraged. However, the ad leaves out
an important fact. Because of marijuana's illegal status, it's much more
available to teens and children than even 3.2 beer. If marijuana were a
regulated substance like alcohol, it would be easier to control our
children's access to it.

As a black market substance, it easily permeates our schools. What the
National Drug Control Policy Office wants kept secret from you is that
there's a better way to protect our youth. If protection is their goal, why
do they perpetuate a 50-plus-year-old "War on Drugs" that has coincided
with a dramatic increase of drug use in our society and especially among
our youth?

Billions of dollars and millions of lives lost or ruined have taken us
further from the intended goal of zero drug use. It's time to rethink this
issue.

Larry Brittain, Guthrie