THE WAR ON DRUGS HAS FAILED

The reality of the `mind-altering' editorial is different with y'all up
there than with us down here. Down here, the notion of stopping drug use
ends up with cities becoming combat zones with military-style policing.
Please, don't go there.

Prohibition is worse than a dead-end street. It creates a black market and
the thugs take over. Then the citizenry - hopefully adequately represented
by its local government - has to hire thugs to handle those thugs. Things
get nastier. It will escalate. And protection will cost more and more.

Allan Erickson
Eugene, Ore.