Daryl Gates’ Comments on Drug Users
Current statistics show that about 390,000 deaths in the U.S. each year are directly attributed to tobacco, and the figure for alcohol is about 100,000. On the other hand, only 3,000 or 4,000 die from cocaine, and the figure for marijuana is so low that I have yet to see a death rate for it at all.
I think I understand why Gates proposed having casual drug users taken out and shot. He wants to raise the death rates for cocaine and marijuana users to equal those for tobacco and alcohol users. In that way, this insane drug war, so reminiscent of Prohibition, would be justified!
LEON F. MARZILLIER
Granada Hills
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