‘A Look at Drug Use’

Your editorial misses a few major points:

1. The DEA admits that police do not intercept more than 5% of all of the drugs which come into the country. Sterling Johnson, federal prosecutor for the district of New York, in testimony before the House Select Committee on Narcotics and Drug Abuse in September, 1988, stated that the police would have to seize at least 14 times as much as they currently do in order to have any effect on the drug market.

The drop in the statistics is most likely due to a combination of factors including:

* DEA officials admitted in 1986 that their own statistics have been exaggerated for publicity purposes. In other words, we may just be seeing the truth rather than a lot of self-serving publicity.

* Drug abuse tends to follow cycles and we may be seeing a cyclical drop, only to see the problem flare up in another area, at another time.

* Educational programs have increased the awareness of the health hazards of drugs.

2. Every major study that has ever been done has concluded that police have never had any significant positive effect on the drug problem and probably make the drug problem worse.

The reason is simple: Cops don’t cure anybody. Addicts go into jail addicted and they come out addicted.

3. The number of people killed by drugs in the United States in 1988 was as follows: Tobacco killed more than 300,000; alcohol killed more than 60,000; cocaine killed about 1,800; marijuana killed 0.

All of the illegal drugs combined killed about 3,800 or about 1% of the total killed by alcohol and tobacco.

Any policy which punishes users of illegal drugs while ignoring the effects of alcohol and tobacco is hypocritical in the extreme.

I invite every reader to go to a public library and read the facts for themselves. The overwhelming majority of all of the research that has ever been done has said that police action against drugs is ineffective and counterproductive.

The real solutions to the drug problem are education, health care, and jobs. These solutions are more difficult than throwing people in jail, but they are also much more humane, and much more effective.

CLIFFORD A. SCHAFFER

Canyon Country