DRUG LEGALIZATION

I found drug czar Barry McCaffrey's diatribe against drug legalization
encouraging (Commentary, July 27), mostly because the existence of a
high-profile response like this means that the important issue of drug
legalization in the U.S. is at last gaining some long-overdue credibility.
The fact is that people use drugs. Millions of Americans are hooked on
tobacco products and millions more are addicted to alcohol; these two
extremely dangerous legal drugs kill over half a million Americans each
year. Even so, no sane person advocates putting smokers and drinkers in
prison for life as a way of "helping" them, yet this is exactly the
approach recommended for other, much less harmful drugs, which we presently
term "illegal."

MATTHEW CLARK
San Diego

McCaffrey's commentary is illogical and misses the main point.
Drug-related crime (i.e., robbery, murder, etc.) still accounts for
two-thirds--by the government's own estimates--of crime against persons.

I have chosen not to join the minority who have put themselves in harm's
way by doing drugs, but I cannot choose not to be a victim of a crime
perpetrated by someone looking for easy money to feed a drug addiction.

This is the harm driven by the government's draconian measures.

Our freedoms are also being compromised by "stiff law enforcement."

McCaffrey's traditional approach is demonstrably a failure.

We need to try something that "reduces harm" for the vast majority not
involved in the world of drugs, but who are victimized by it daily
through no fault of their own.

JAMES V. HALLORAN III Redondo Beach

In a time when respect for the law, especially as it concerns our drug
laws, is in short supply in many quarters, our lawmakers must make a
greater effort to bring our set of laws in line with reasonable public
sentiment, and they must try to make our criminal codes internally
consistent.

McCaffrey writes, "Addictive drugs were criminalized because they are
harmful." Is that really all there is to it? The children we are all so
concerned about do not buy this kind of line. Many have seen friends die or
be injured as a result of alcohol abuse; many more have lost loved ones to
diseases that can be traced back to long-time cigarette use. Far fewer know
of death or illness that has come as a result of marijuana use.

McCaffrey focuses on heroin use in most of his piece, but the most pressing
drug legalization issue has to do with marijuana.

It is much more widely used, and is felt by a great number of people in
this country to be relatively harmless.

As long as McCaffrey continues to call for the continued prosecution of
marijuana offenses, but says nothing about criminalizing alcohol and
cigarettes, I hope that he can offer the public some explanation as to the
logic he is operating by.

ERIC H. GAMONAL Woodland Hills

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