DRUG PROBLEM

To the editor:

If the Nevada Board of Health opposes the legalization of marijuana for
health concerns, then why does it not support the recriminalization of
alcohol for the same reason? Alcohol kills more than 150,000 people every
year, yet nobody thinks it would be a wise move to return to the era of Al
Capone.

Nobody has gone blind from drinking a bad bottle of gin in nearly 70 years.
There have been no violent disputes over alcohol turf, nor gun battles
between federal prohibition agents and gangsters. Yet we keep this same
failed system in place for other cannabis, and we get the exact same
results. Criminals profit, our streets are less safe, and our freedoms dwindle.

America was caught up in a war to end alcohol consumption for more than a
decade. Despite countless raids, the end to the speakeasy system came not
with an arrest, but with a repeal. We can rid ourselves of our current
"drug problem" the exact same way.

KENDALL M. COX

SHOREWOOD, ILL.