THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 12, 1996 TAG: 9604120022
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 31 lines
Mike Kelly's letter (April 1) urging prosecution of drug users was truly a breath of fresh air.
One of the few things I remember from a symbolic-logic course is that to solve a problem you have to address the cause, not the effect. The drug dealers are effect and the users are the cause of the problem.
When the Communists took over China in October 1949, they faced millions of mostly opium addicts. Their course of action was to concentrate on getting all users under some form of control, in jails or hospitals, or by indoctrinations, depending on the addicts' potential for rehabilitation. If users are not buying, drug dealers must opt for a career change.
Illegal drug suppliers scarcely qualify for outstanding citizen awards, but they'll be here until we overhaul our hopelessly failed anti-drug tactics, which are laughed at in Mexico and Columbia because their governments know that in the final analysis our drug users are the cause of the problem, not their drug lords or coca-leaf growing peasants.
WALTER J. CLOUGH JR.
Norfolk, April 1, 1996 by CNB