DRUG DISPARITIES

Charles M. Jaymes

St. Joseph, Mich. -- Your recent editorial on the sentencing disparity
between crack and powder cocaine ("Double standard on cocaine," Jan. 23)
left out one very important distinction: violence.

The white guy snorting coke at his desk on Wall Street doesn't drive down
the street indiscriminately firing an Uzi out of the window. The public
grew weary and frightened of these gangster tactics and that's what brought
the legal hammer down.

Our useless and intrusive drug laws are not some zany racist government
plot. There are many young, white, hippie kids doing Draconian 10- and
20-year mandatory sentences for a few dollars worth of LSD.

As recent events in the world have shown us, we have much more important
things for law enforcement to do than help throw away young lives.