Series on Addicts and AIDS

In response to Peter F. King’s On California column, “A Call for Retreat in Drug War” (Sept. 27):

King presents very well the main reasons why two Superior Court judges and one federal magistrate support the decriminalization of illegal narcotics. His personal conclusion, however, is in serious error. He states, “I wonder if the decriminalization advocates are in danger of repeating a mistake evident in the narc team approach--not knowing the enemy. The enemy is cocaine . . . no matter who supplies it.”

The enemy is not cocaine. The enemy is the numerous results of abuse of cocaine (and of all narcotics). The results include increased crime and violence against innocent citizens, the enrichment of powerful and dangerous criminals and the destruction of healthy American minds and bodies.

The decriminalization advocates embrace a worthy program to eliminate the results of abuse: End the enrichment of drug traffickers, stop their violent wars to maintain their turf and remove the need to steal to support an addiction.

The advocates recognize we have lost the war against drugs. Drugs are--and forever will be--available to any American willing to pay the price. But we should protect the innocent by effectively driving the street pushers and drug lords out of business, which is accomplished by controlling the supply and distribution of drugs.

Finally, they responsibly advocate using the additional tax revenue to educate our young of the dangers drugs present and to rehabilitate our fellow Americans whose lives are ravaged by their disastrous decisions.

MARK EVANS

Inglewood