RE-ENGINEERING THE DRUG BUSINESS

As Matthew Brzezinski's article (June 23) makes clear, the reason illegal
drugs cost so much is that they're illegal. And the cost to the buyer
doesn't include the costs involved in keeping them illegal. It's the
taxpayer who foots the bill for the border patrols, police narcotics squads
and the court and prison employees directly involved in the enforcement of
our drug laws -- and for the new prisons to accommodate the growing numbers
of convicted dealers and users.

It appears that those who want drugs, illegal or not, have little problem
in obtaining them. So why not make things easier for all concerned, and
much less expensive, by abandoning the illusion that we can stop or even
diminish drug use by declaring it illegal?

Paul D. Davis, Montclair, N.J.

Our liberating Afghanistan has allowed that country to go back into the
cultivation of poppy. Shouldn't we be providing immediate farm aid to allow
for the profitable cultivation of alternative crops? Certainly, this would
be one of the best weapons in the war on heroin.

John Paris, Atlanta