DRUG USE, ABUSE ISSUES NEED A PUBLIC FORUM

Thank you for the balanced ideas and opinions offered in your newspaper
regarding the very important topic of drugs, their use and their abuse.

As someone who tracks drug policy news and opinion in newspapers across the
country, I can tell you that the Amarillo Globe-News gives more attention
to this topic than any other newspaper in Texas, when size comparisons are
taken into account.

The fact is that more than 88 percent of Americans will use one or more
drugs this month, both legal and illegal. Some of your local writers
obviously recognize how foolish it would be, therefore, to set a target for
a "drug-free America." Rather, the intelligent and compassionate way to
address these issues is with an approach of better and more accurate
education regarding both the uses and abuses of all drugs.

In many ways, West Texas is still isolated from the rest of the world. But
as Europe, Canada and a majority (population-wise) of the United States
continue to institute more commonsense approaches to drug policy, the
effects will be felt even in Amarillo and the rest of the Texas Panhandle.

Maintaining diverse discussion in your newspaper is a key to helping these
inevitable changes take place in a way that will most benefit all concerned.

Stephen Heath

Public Relations Director

Drug Policy Forum of Florida

Clearwater, Fla.