DOLLARS HAVEN'T CURTAILED DRUG USE

Letter writers Jeff Jarvis and Tracy Johnson were right on the money in
their outstanding letter, "Millions up in smoke" (Aug. 16), about the
millions upon millions of dollars wasted prosecuting marijuana users who
harm nobody, except possibly themselves.

Speaking of millions upon millions of dollars wasted, in 1969 the federal
drug enforcement budget was $65 million. This year it's $19.2 billion.
That's greater than a 295-fold increase.

The net result: Anybody who wants drugs can still get them.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.
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Drug War Not Worth The Cost I Admit

I was stunned to see two "suit-wearing, Republican" letter writers confess
publicly to being pot smokers ("Millions up in smoke," Aug. 16). I'm a
shorts and T-shirt Democrat and I don't smoke pot, but I am in total
agreement with their sentiment.

Our government wastes millions of dollars every year in a losing battle
against marijuana use. This drug war is bringing crime and sometimes
violence into our community, the way alcohol prohibition did 80 years ago.

Perhaps it is only a coincidence that the rate of government spending in
Oregon has increased faster than the rate of population growth, starting
just about the time the "war on drugs" began.

Kendall Auel

Lake Oswego
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Drug Users Selfish, Hedonistic

Jeff Jarvis and Tracy Johnson's pro-drugs letter ("Millions up in smoke,"
Aug. 16) is incredibly self-centered. "Responsible pot smokers"? I'm still
laughing at that oxymoron.

It's selfish, hedonistic drug users themselves who create the demand, waste
public resources and fill the courts and jails. Instead of blaming
everybody but themselves for this drain on society, Jarvis, Johnson and
those like them should simply stop using drugs, and the social and monetary
costs they claim to deplore would be greatly reduced.

Joe Dudman

Southeast Portland