Address hypocritical druguse laws; criminalize or legalize everything

I am saddened by the resignation of Multnomah County Deputy District
Attorney David B. Peters, saddened by the reaction of his colleagues and
infuriated at the way society continues to hold such hypocritical attitudes
towards drugs.

Your article (Sept. 3) gives many examples about what a productive person
Peters has been. This man has no "drug problem," rather, he has been a
victim of society's braindead ideas about drugs.

Neither Multnomah County Circuit Judge Frank Bearden nor District Attorney
Michael D. Schrunk would be quoted in your paper if nicotine and alcohol
had been found in Peter's home. Yet these drugs are far more damaging to
an individual than the ones that were, and truly devastating to society.
Why is it that nicotine and alcohol are legal (and in the case of nicotine,
productionsubsidized) and advertised; while other drugs would send someone
to prison?

Nicotine and alcohol are far worse for individuals and for society. Both
Bearden and Schrunk are in a position to begin to help society look at
drugs and recreational drug use in a more logical and appropriate light.
We should either criminalize all recreational drug use with particular
attention to the real insidious drugs of nicotine and alcohol or legalize
them all, tax them for revenue and use some of that revenue to deal with
the aftermath of drug abuse, not drug use.

We should quit putting productive and valued members of society in jail or
into compromising positions because of stupid and illogical drug laws.

Barry Crook
Southwest Portland