Drug Problem in United States

So Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates has a new expensive toy--an armored vehicle with a battering ram! What is next, a tank with a 75-mm cannon?

When I came to Los Angeles 30 years ago, Chief William Parker was stating that two-thirds of the crime in Los Angeles was directly related to drugs. Every chief of police since then has made similar statements. Their reaction to this situation is to hire more policemen and to pass more laws. Apparently this has not done much to alleviate crime!

The solution to the problem is so simple, but with the billion-dollar enterprise for organized crime and the billion-dollar law enforcement empires that have grown up around drugs, the answer to the problem will never be implemented. The solution is, of course, to legalize drugs and take the tremendous profits out of the picture.

A kilo of heroin or cocaine in the producing country is worth about $40. Once it is across the border of the United States, it is worth about a million dollars. So someone will always be found to bring it in!

Let us examine the advantages to be gained with legalized drugs. One, the reduction in crime by two-thirds would save the taxpayers millions of dollars. Two, two-thirds of the police force could be laid off or assigned to other crimes. Three, the court system would be unloaded so the five-year waits for civil cases would disappear. Four, the number of deaths by the overdosing would be reduced because the drugs would be of uniform strength. Five, one truly addicted to heroin could hold a steady job and become a productive taxpayer. Six, the need for more expensive prisons would vanish.

For the last three years the California Department of Agriculture has stated that the largest cash crop in California is marijuana and the state doesn’t get a cent in taxes!

We think we are a progressive country, but we really have our heads in the sand about certain highly emotional problems.

HAROLD L. STEPHENS

Woodland Hills

Concerning the article by Jody Powell (Editorial Pages, March 3), “End the Immunity for Cocaine Users.”

Whoa there! Are we to put or threaten to put 10 million citizens in prison merely to keep them from ruining their health? This is paternalism carried to the nth degree.

Powell suggests that these people are criminals because they support assassins and murderers. I suggest that perhaps we, the public, are the ones in error because by outlawing these drugs we make them profitable enough to pay for murder, corruption and paid assassination.

When a substance like cocaine is controlled, or made illegal, it is taken out of the regular channels of commerce. Penalties are inflicted upon those who are caught trading it; therefore, only the most desperate take the chance. By there being less commerce, the demand for that which is available is higher and the price charged can be proportionately greater. By this process, a very cheap-to-produce substance can demand a fabulous price on the U.S. market. And the dealers get richer.

Can we not let those over 21 have their coke and ruin their own health, if they choose to? If we were to let them have it for a nominal price, would it not put all of the criminals out of business for lack of a profit motive? Perhaps it might even keep them out of our schoolyards.

DON SWETT JR.

Westminster

America is beset by an ever-increasing number of smug, self-indulgent middle- and upper-class (in the economics sense only) drug users who are directly responsible for the multibillion-dollar international drug business. As such, they are the employers responsible for murder, bribery and corruption all down the line, as these are “necessary” for drug traffic to continue.

It would be difficult to overestimate the harm done by the international drug trade. But for starters, it makes each of less safe. It impairs or destroys the lives of those who use drugs. It costs all citizens in higher taxes to fight the crime it produces. It results in higher insurance rates. It undermines the integrity of our police and justice systems. It adversely affects our balance of trade by sending billions of dollars out of the country and diverts dollars to criminals that would otherwise be spent on legal goods and services.

And the worst may be yet to come. No decent society can allow itself to be undermined by drug use and all its attendant evils. But in the fray, many of our democratic liberties may be lost. Search-and-seizure laws, already lenient, may become even more relaxed. Vigilantism, already with us, will increase. The Jerry Falwells will grow in numbers and in power. And all of this just for some cheap thrills! The blame for all this rests squarely where it belongs: on the drug users.

Drug use was once largely a lower-class phenomena where it could be excused, if not condoned, as relief from misery and lack of hope. But recently it has pervaded the middle and upper classes who have no excuse other than their own miserable weakness of character.

I wouldn’t like to see these people tried as criminals--at least not yet. I just want them to wake up! How I would love to be able to grab them by their collective collars and shake them into awareness and say to them: “You fools, look what you are doing, not only to yourselves but to all mankind!”

Once they see the cause and effect link between what they are doing and what results from it, most will stop. Then we should crack down on the rest and try them as criminals, for if knowing what they cause, they persist, then they are truly criminal.

WM. McCALL

Arcadia