US DRUG POLICIES

SIR, - Thank you for publishing Robert Sharpe's outstanding letter
headed "Policy on drugs" (February 21). I would like to add that the
US is the most backward nation on the planet regarding drug policy.

With fewer than 5% of the world's population, the US has greater than
25% of the world's prisoners, thanks primarily to our
counter-productive war on certain politically selected drugs. Almost
all of our so-called drug-related crime is actually caused by drug
prohibition.

The British murder rate and other violent crime rates are a small
fraction of US rates. That will soon change if Britain adopts US drug
policies.

Kirk Muse