The Times’ series on black tar heroin; the global warming debate; remembering artist Henry Fukuhara

Taking on heroin

Re “A lethal business model targets Middle America,” Feb. 14, “Black tar moves in, and death follows,” Feb. 15, and “Xalisco’s good life can mean death in the U.S.,” Feb. 16

Reading your series made me more mad about what the drug pushers have done to our children here in the United States.

I’m a father of a former drug addict who has been clean for more than six years. Almost everywhere I go, I hear of people who have had a relative or someone they know involved in drugs. It’s an epidemic, and the sooner we take care of it, the better. The present strategy against drugs is a joke and is not working. We expect Mexico to do everything, which is not going to happen. The most marginalized people in Mexico have no other alternative but to get involved in the trade, for lack of jobs and opportunity.

My suggestion: Once a pusher is caught and found guilty, he or she should be sentenced to the death penalty. Also, this penalty should be administered in a swift manner, so it doesn’t become another joke.

Simon Mendoza
Baldwin Park

Being greeted by a large front-page photo of a man squatting on a toilet while he injects heroin into his hand was such a wonderful way to begin Valentine’s Day -- NOT!

What is The Times thinking -- that it’s so raw and edgy that it will capture that elusive youth demographic away from newer media outlets by featuring stories this way?

Good luck! All you are doing is alienating the faithful older readers who cringe at having the ugliest of images forced on them first thing in the morning.

Suzanne Lake
Pasadena

What a sad state of reality -- the local drug dealer is more concerned about customer service than the utility companies.

Michele Krenzin
Huntington Beach

This is one more chapter in the continuing saga of drug abuse in America.

The sellers of black tar heroin find it to be a much more rewarding activity than working at minimum-wage jobs.

Their customers resort to criminal behavior to fund their purchases, and the dance goes on.

The only solution to this long-standing problem is to provide addicts with low-cost drugs in a government-funded and -controlled program. The same program should provide counseling, therapy and assistance in finding employment.

Opponents will always argue that the government would be aiding and abetting criminal behavior. But the “war on drugs” is a demonstrated failure, and it is high time for a more reasoned approach.

John Nelson
Los Angeles

I watched the narrated slide show on your website featuring the self-absorbed and deluded married couple whose addiction to heroin is the entire focus of their daily existence.

To say I was appalled would be putting it mildly.

These addicts sponge off family and elderly neighbors, shoplift when necessary, and no doubt receive some sort of taxpayer subsidy.

Apparently, the only way this useless duo might stop shooting up is when the day finally comes that they just can’t find a vein.

It’s hard to feel anything but unbridled contempt for this pair, and all the others like them.

Marcia Goodman
Long Beach

On the world’s changing climate

Re “Q&A: Snowstorm and climate change,” Feb. 12

This article tells us that the record snowstorms we have just experienced are consistent with global warming. We have already been told that a lack of snow is also consistent with global warming. I am beginning to wonder if there is any weather event that is not consistent with the global warming theory.

Marty Callahan
Orange

Climate change humor during a snowstorm exposes our naivete and tricks us into acting against our own interests. To dig our way out of climate change, tossing out science ain’t so smart.

We should be educating ourselves rather than pretending science is hogwash. Even if you do not care about polar bears, sea-level rise and drought threaten to destabilize governments and create refugees. By ignoring science, we give other countries the advantage in the clean-energy race.

We need policies based on the best science and economics. Cap and trade won’t lower CO2 enough, but it will encourage Wall Street games. Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) has a simple bill that would encourage a quick transition to clean energy. His “carbon fee and dividend” sets a predictable price on energy while spurring U.S. technologies and jobs. That’s no joke.

Amy Hoyt Bennett
Encinitas, Calif.

Patzert’s views

Re “Patt Morrison Asks Bill Patzert: Hot for climate,” Opinion, Feb. 13

The climate change deniers mock the theory of global warming while they shovel the evidence of its strength. The simple fact is that warmer air holds more moisture. When temperatures cool, the moisture falls from the sky as snow.

While the East Coast is buried in snow, Vancouver has little. Rio de Janeiro is experiencing its worst heat wave in decades. Whole countries are staring at water shortages while others experience flooding for the first time in decades. The U.S. is developing strategies to deal with social upheaval that may accompany dramatic changes in climate. Our military is preparing to cut its dependence on fossil fuels. Thank goodness some in positions of authority are not being led by crazies.

Richard Green
San Clemente

Nobody denies that the climate changes -- it’s been changing for billions of years. What we “denial-ists” deny is the ludicrous assertion that human activity has any impact whatsoever on solar cycles, sunspot activity, the Earth’s changing magnetic field, cosmic ray influx and so on.

But the one burning question I have is: How, exactly, do the climate-changeists expect to change the climate (from what to what anyway -- who knows?), by taxing the country into slavery?

Of course, the warmingists -- excuse me -- climate changeists, will accuse me of taking payoffs from Exxon Mobil. I wish they would tell me where I’m supposed to pick up this alleged payoff; I could sure use the cash!

Rich Grise
Whittier

If this is Bill Patzert’s best case for global warming, no wonder skeptics abound.

He wants us to believe that for one out of a million instances, the cause of global warming is different this time? He needs to make the case that human activity is causing the warming to persuade thinking people to change their entire way of life in less than a generation.

This article just reinforces the incredulity so many people have about climate science. We know the Earth’s climate is warming, but no one has made a convincing case that humans are the cause. Do this and, if you are right, you just may save us all.

Wendy Weber
Costa Mesa

Remembering an artist

Re “Henry Fukuhara, 1913 – 2010: Artist led Manzanar painting trips,” Obituary, Feb. 14

My family and I had the pleasure of meeting Henry Fukuhara in the 1990s.

He was the artist in residence at a family camp in the High Sierra, teaching water-coloring to the campers. One day, he gave a lecture on how he created his paintings. He asked all of us to put our family names in a hat, then made a beautiful painting of the camp’s lake, with three sailboats on the water.

When our name was pulled from the hat, we were thrilled: The prize was the painting. It hangs in our entryway to this day, a beautiful reminder of a lovely, talented man.

Juli Kinrich
Valley Village