COUNT THE CASUALTIES CAUSED BY WAR ON DRUGS

I thank the Daily Herald for running its series on the dangers of drugs,
"The Hidden Scourge."

Providing education and accurate information is the best way to reduce the
human misery that can be caused by overindulgence in mind-altering
substances. When reporting injuries and deaths that are related to the use
of drugs, it would be helpful if you would distinguish between those that
are directly related to the consumption of the drug, and those that are
caused by the "war on drugs."

When a teen dies because he unknowingly takes a lethal dose of a drug, or
takes a different drug than he intends to take, the death should be counted
as collateral damage from the war on drugs, and not be blamed on the drug
itself.

Most accidents of this type are due to the fact that street drugs are of
unknown strength and purity. During Prohibition, many people died from
poisoning because the alcohol they chose to consume was produced and
labeled under uncontrolled conditions.

The same thing is happening now with street drugs.

During Prohibition, many people died, and governments were corrupted,
because of the "war on alcohol."

The same thing is happening now with the war on drugs.

Drug abuse should be combated at the individual level, as the Daily Herald
is doing with its series.

Give people the facts, and let them make the moral decisions themselves.

I am a child of the '60s, and I am proud to say that I never experimented
with drugs. It never made sense to me; perhaps I had good information.

Today, I don't see the availability of drugs as a threat to my family or to
me. I do see the war on drugs as a threat.

This war provides the motivation for a large percentage of our violent
crime and provides funding for a criminal subculture, which is a threat to
everyone.

Richard J. Cullen,
Naperville