THIS FORMER DEALER AGREES

I am writing in response to Matthew Hulet's letter about legislation
requiring promoters take responsibility for drug dealing at raves [...'Bout
My Generation," Letters, June 17]. He makes several points that I would
like to comment on.

I agree completely with him on all of them. I am from Texas and spent much
of my early youth in the Punk/New Wave (later to become Goth) scene in
Dallas, one of the touted homes of ecstasy. When I first became aware of
it, the drug was still legal to sell, and there was nowhere near the furor
over it then. It was known then to be a psychiatric tool used in the
treatment of PTSD, and other forms of psychiatric illness.

I also know that because of the ingenuity of dealers - I was one for many
years without ever being prosecuted; I decided to quit while I was ahead -
that any means the government puts in the way of those who want the
substance will quickly be overcome by those who supply it. Making someone
outside of this chain responsible for what is a pointless and hopelessly
futile law is a further travesty.

He is right; education is what is needed, and real science into the effects
of the drug on the human user. Research on animals will only tell us how
the drug affects them. I know many people who used the drug often in the
'80s who have had no problems with their lives, memories, or immune
systems. I know of no one who took 'ecstasy,' and not something that was
said to be ecstasy, that died from it. Also, the distinction needs to be
maintained between the responsible use of any substance, and its abuse - or
irresponsible use, which can only be learned by educating those who will
use they drug despite the efforts of government and law enforcement to stop
them.

Hulet says it clearly "accepting with serenity that which we cannot
change." I would lastly like to add: "Insanity is doing the same thing
again expecting different results." What has the war on drugs been doing?
The same thing over, and over, and over...

Matthew Bailey