OFFER DRUG TREATMENT

Re: "Getting Drug Dealers Off The Street" (Our Opinion, Dec. 24):

Yes, law enforcement should be given every legal means to rid the streets
of drug dealers. But we must all understand that the local market will
shrink, move, then finally return to find and addict those people willing
to pay the price. Even the risk of capital punishment for kingpins would
not stop substances worth 60 times what they'd bring on a free market. (Can
you imagine anything worth more than $20,000 per ounce?)

There is only one way to kill the illegal market for keeps: Take out the
profit and the addiction. The least destructive way would be for states to
run stores the way Pennsylvania has been selling liquor since it was
relegalized in 1933. Then go one step beyond Pennsylvania and use part of
the revenue to offer open-ended, free treatment.

John Chase, Palm Harbor

The writer is a board member and secretary of Unitarian Universalists for
Drug Policy Reform. Web site: www.uudpr.org