YOUTH AND DRUGS

Editor, The News:

Re: 'I miss him so much' Jan. 25

As grieving parents of a son who died at age 19 in 1993 after ingesting
street heroin, our hearts go out to Pat Murphy. However, we must
respectfully say there is a better way to reduce the number of our children
dying because of drugs than urging them to "just say no" and increasing
penalties.

Our children die because drugs are prohibited by law.

When America prohibited alcohol, thousands were poisoned by adulterated
black market booze. When alcohol was legalized again, those incidents were
drastically reduced.

Today, our children are dying because of adulterated black market drugs.
For example, heroin is not a poison. Canada's 1973 Le Dain commission
concluded, "There appears to be little permanent physiological damage from
chronic use of pure opiate narcotics." Let's finish the job we started when
we ended alcohol prohibition, follow the principles enshrined in the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and END DRUG PROHIBITION.

Eleanor and Alan Randell

Victoria