DRUG WAR BOMBS

Charley Whitworth ("Opium terror," Dec. 30 Reader Views) wants to bomb the
opium flowers in Afghanistan with "daisy-cutter" bombs out of B-52s. Odd,
since almost none of our heroin originates there. But it feels good,
doesn't it, to talk of bombing drugs in faraway lands?

Quite appropriate to use bombs in a drug war, I think; no doubt, we've done
so in Colombia. But the United States suffers 400,000 deaths a year from
tobacco and 110,000 from alcohol. And just 5,000 from heroin and cocaine --
and that number is unreliable!

Seems we have our missions mixed. The United States is the largest drug
exporter in the world with its amber waves of tobacco and shining seas of
alcohol. It looks as though we should be bombing ourselves -- if drugs are
really the issue, that is.

DAVE MICHON

Eau Claire, Wis.