DRUG DICHOTOMY?

Dare we hope that the real Wall Street Journal editors have at last stood
up? On June 10, after prominent individuals signed a letter stating "the
global war on drugs is now causing more harm than drug abuse itself," you
denounced them ("500 Drug Geniuses") as dupes of George Soros or closet
druggies. Yet in your July 23 editorial "Treat the Pain," you explain how
tens of thousands of cancer patients suffer unnecessary pain because
drug-war-related regulations and phobias hinder doctors from prescribing
pain-killers. In Asides you note that while Dubai provides convicted
millionaire swindlers with air-conditioned prison offices, it will execute
poor little Jamal caught with 6.7 oz of heroin.

Thomas H. Haines New York (The author is chair, Executive Committee,
Partnership for responsible drug Information and Chair, Biochemistry, CUNY
Medical School.)

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski