PROHIBITION KILLED CHUVALO'S SONS

Re the Feb. 28 article Drugs knocked out boxer's family. George Chuvalo was
a courageous and skillful boxer, but his take on the tragic heroin-induced
deaths of his sons is tragically wrong. Simply urging kids to "just say no"
to drugs just doesn't work and besides, it was drug prohibition that killed
his sons, not the drug itself.

The 1973 Le Dain Commission concluded, "There appears to be little
permanent physiological damage from chronic use of pure opiate narcotics."

Just as the prohibition of alcohol poisoned thousands who ingested
adulterated alcohol, drug prohibition kills users who ingest adulterated
drugs. My 19-year-old son, Peter, died in February 1993 shortly after
ingesting some street heroin.

How sad to see that Chuvalo has been bamboozled into supporting the very
laws that killed his sons, the failed crusade of drug prohibition.

Alan Randell

Victoria, B.C.