MAKE THEM LEGAL?

I agree with Mr. Lee Cooper's distress at the problems which drugs cause in
our society. His public disdain for those who use drugs is the best weapon
we have against their misuse. But he says, "I guess if drugs were legal,
neither of these two (drug abuse instances that he cited) would have occurred."

The problem is that they occurred while they were illegal, along with the
crime, corruption and government intrusion that accompanies such inevitably
impotent black market prohibition. And the massive amounts of money
generated by crime syndicates, including terrorists, is there because it is
illegal.

With alcohol prohibition of the 1920s and '30s, we at least maintained the
integrity of the Constitution by justifying it with a Constitutional
amendment. Ask yourself why we don't have an amendment for the so-called
"War on Drugs." The drugs will continue to be there in answer to the
demand, and our policymakers know that. The only things diminished are our
freedoms and our pocketbook.

Mahlon Marr
Byron