STILL DYING

To the editor:

It is amazing how many people don't see the forest for the trees. The
Tuesday Review-Journal included a letter from a Kendall M. Cox from
Illinois. He stated that there are no more shoot-outs over illegal gin and
the like, and that since alcohol is now legal, no one is dying.

Really? How many people are killed each year by drunken drivers? How high
are all of our car insurance premiums because of drunken drivers? How many
people are disabled because of drunken drivers? How many parents buried
their small children and are living empty lives because of drunken drivers?
What does it cost U.S. taxpayers to arrest, process, incarcerate drunken
drivers? What are the health care costs for persons whose lives are damaged
by drunken drivers?

We certainly do not have this situation under control, and I would bet that
fewer people died when the feds and Al Capone's boys were shooting it out
in the good old days than have died from drunken drivers.

So what do we do? Let's put a few more incapacitated drivers on the road,
let's give them something else to help them kill and ruin lives. Could we
guarantee that marijuana would be given only to those who needed it
medically, and that they in turn would then absolutely not drive, or in any
other way put themselves or anyone else in danger? No, we cannot. All the
drunken drivers already proved that point.

Let's solve one problem before we introduce something that will only
exacerbate a situation that is already way out of control.

Regina Oliver

Las Vegas