Pros and Cons of Decriminalizing Drugs the in U.S.

For illustrating the opposing mentalities and styles of the doves and the hawks in the war on drugs, your juxtaposition of articles March 15 (“It’s a Drive as Natural as Food or Sex” by Ronald Siegel and “Some Among Us Would Seek to Surrender” by Daryl Gates) is the best yet in your series. Siegel, a psychopharmacologist at the UCLA School of Medicine, after a professional lifetime studying drugs, has logically worked from facts to a sensible conclusion (“ . . . there is a legitimate place in our society for intoxication”). Chief Gates, fearlessly brandishing absurd analogies and unsupportable assumptions, urges us to supply more cannon fodder for the charge of the Bennett brigade. Those who fail to rally to this battle cry are “fifth columnists.”

Gates’ central assumption--borrowed from a Bush Administration official--is “that legalization might lead to a five- to six-fold increase in cocaine use.” This means that our leaders in this war must envision tens of thousands law-abiding citizens restraining forbidden urges all these years only because of cocaine’s illegality and that legalization would unleash this slavering horde. The only thing scary about such a scenario is that it emanates from people in power.

C.J. WRIGHT

Venice