Drug Legalization

In response to “Ruling Legalizing Drugs Leaves Many Colombians in a Tizzy,” May 20:

I was disappointed that this most significant development in drug policy in our hemisphere was relegated to Page A7 and received no editorial comment. After years of editorial debate on drug legalization we are now presented with a test case in our own back yard. Rather than ignoring this opportunity, we (including The Times) should be embracing this as a critical social experiment that we want to monitor carefully. Apparently our “outraged” State Department hasn’t figured out what is blatantly obvious to the Colombians--the drug war has failed.

I suspect that the legalization of drugs will someday confirm Arthur Schopenhauer’s observation: “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident.”

DALE O’NEAL

Laguna Beach