KILL THE MESSENGER

Did Nick Gillespie really need to list all the illegal drugs he's used
(Editor's Note, January)? I have written to reason before about its
apparent conversion into a druggie fan magazine. My breaking point has been
reached. Please cancel my subscription.

Gillespie, you and your minions seem unaware of the terrible tragedies that
follow drug users. In today's society, there is no penalty for what you are
doing, but I can only hope that you and your crowd are visited by a drugged
madman with an AK-47.

Rinehart S. Potts, Glassboro, NJ

I thank Nick Gillespie for coming forward with his recreational drug
history. Perfectly normal Americans have been demonized for far too long by
the moral zealots who would jail us all for violating their narrow
sensibilities. The conventional wisdom has also bred many hypocrites-those
who privately indulge in illicit recreation but publicly rail against drugs
and their effect on those presumed to be too irresponsible to manage their
own lives.

I have been a marijuana user for nearly 30 years. I hope that Gillespie's
refreshing candor helps send a clarion call to all of us to come forward
with the truth. In order to approach these substances - which have been and
always will be with us - safely, we need truth and education, not
propaganda and hysteria.

Michael J. Petro Phoenix, AZ

Drugs of Choice

At the risk of sounding like those who recommend that everyone try Ecstasy
at least once, I suggest that Jacob Sullum's article on MDMA ("Sex, Drugs,
and Techno Music," January) should be required reading. Comprehensive,
balanced, and logical. Bravo.

Mitch Bogen, Somerville, MA

Jacob Sullum mentions that much of supposed MDMA is contaminated or
actually some combination of other drugs. Back in my days, when LSD was in
wide circulation, its reliability was much greater, for a couple of reasons.

First, most LSD was circulated on tiny squares of blotter paper (and still
is). There are few substances in the world that are potent enough to have
any effect when taken in that quantity, so it would be hard to fit an
effective dose of even many potent poisons on one of those paper squares.
Thus "blotter acid" is hard to contaminate or fake with other drugs.

Second, due to LSD's high potency and the fact that it's easy to produce,
"hippie entrepreneurs with small, portable labs could meet most of the
market's demand. With MDMA, however, since the effective dose is over 1,000
times the weight of an LSD dose, all the above is multiplied by the same
amount. You need a warehouse and a crew of chemists to produce a similar
number of doses. You also need heavy-duty smugglers. So, as you can
imagine, MDMA production tends to be controlled by large criminal
enterprises. By contrast, in the old days, a few strange but usually nobly
motivated individuals could satisfy the market for LSD. And thus with MDMA
we see the net effect: contaminated and bogus doses, violent
confrontations, and the whole spectrum of "harm maximization" produced by
prohibition.

Peter Webster, International Journal of Drug Policy Auvare, France

Drug War Defectors

I would like to thank Michael Lynch and the three ex-drug warriors he
interviewed for the refreshingly truthful "Battlefield Conversions"
(January). The information presented makes one thing undeniable: Some
government departments have been lying to us for years about the War on
Drugs. Unfortunately, John Q. Public remains mostly unaware of the depth of
this deception. Lynch's article should be required reading for every
taxpaying American voter.

L. J. Carden, Concord, CA

In "Battlefield Conversions," Joseph McNamara relates that when he was
police chief in San Jose, the city manager didn't budget money for police
equipment, telling him to raise the funds through drug seizures. McNamara
says, "So law enforcement becomes a revenue-raising agency...."

You don't have to be a whole lot smarter than a turnip to appreciate that a
prerequisite for drug profits is a profitable drug trade. San Jose and
just about every jurisdiction in the country are betting the police budget
that there will be a profitable drug trade next year. Making police
departments profit-sharing partners is the best way I can think of to
guarantee a profitable drug trade in America.

Paul Kelly, Boulder, CO