Letters

Did Nick Gillespie really need to list all the illegal drugs he's used (Editor's Note, January)? I have written to reason before about its apparent conversion into a druggie fan magazine. My breaking point has been reached. Please cancel my subscription.

Gillespie, you and your minions seem unaware of the terrible tragedies that follow drug users. In today's society, there is no penalty for what you are doing, but I can only hope that you and your crowd are visited by a drugged madman with an AK-47.

Rinehart S. Potts

Glassboro, NJ

I thank Nick Gillespie for coming forward with his recreational drug history. Perfectly normal Americans have been demonized for far too long by the moral zealots who would jail us all for violating their narrow sensibilities. The conventional wisdom has also bred many hypocrites--those who privately indulge in illicit recreation but publicly rail against drugs and their effect on those presumed to be too irresponsible to manage their own lives.

I have been a marijuana user for nearly 30 years. I hope that Gillespie's refreshing candor helps send a clarion call to all of us to come forward with the truth. In order to approach these substances--which have been and always will be with us--safely, we need truth and education, not propaganda and hysteria.

Michael F. Petro

Phoenix, AZ

Drugs of Choice

At the risk of sounding like those who recommend that everyone try Ecstasy at least once, I suggest that Jacob Sullum's article on MDMA ("Sex, Drugs, and Techno Music," January) should be required reading. Comprehensive, balanced, and logical. Bravo.

Mitch Bogen

Somerville, MA

Jacob Sullum mentions that much of supposed MDMA is contaminated or actually some combination of other drugs. Back in my days, when LSD was in wide circulation, its reliability was much greater, for a couple of reasons.

First, most LSD was circulated on tiny squares of blotter paper (and still is). There are few substances in the world that are potent enough to have any effect when taken in that quantity, so it would be hard to fit an effective dose of even many potent poisons on one of those paper squares. Thus "blotter acid" is hard to contaminate or fake with other drugs.

Second, due to LSD's high potency and the fact that it's easy to produce, "hippie entrepreneurs" with small, portable labs could meet most of the market's demand. With MDMA, however, since the effective dose is over 1,000 times the weight of an LSD dose, all the above is multiplied by the same amount. You need a warehouse and a crew of chemists to produce a similar number of doses. You also need heavy-duty smugglers.

So, as you can imagine, MDMA production tends to be controlled by large criminal enterprises. By contrast, in the old days, a few strange but usually nobly motivated individuals could satisfy the market for LSD. And thus with MDMA we see the net effect: contaminated and bogus doses, violent confrontations, and the whole spectrum of "harm maximization" produced by prohibition.

Peter Webster

International Journal of Drug Policy Auvare, France

Drug War Defectors

I would like to thank Michael Lynch and the three ex-drug warriors he interviewed for the refreshingly truthful "Battlefield Conversions" (January).The information presented makes one thing undeniable: Some government departments have been lying to us for years about the War on Drugs. Unfortunately, John Q. Public remains mostly unaware of the depth of this deception. Lynch's article should be required reading for every taxpaying American voter.

L. J. Carden

Concord, CA

In "Battlefield Conversions," Joseph McNamara relates that when he was police chief in San Jose, the city manager didn't budget money for police equipment, telling him to raise the funds through drug seizures. McNamara says, "So law enforcement becomes a revenue-raising agency...."

You don't have to be a whole lot smarter than a turnip to appreciate that a prerequisite for drug profits is a profitable drug trade. San Jose and just about every jurisdiction in the country are betting the police budget that there will be a profitable drug trade next year. Making police departments profit-sharing partners is the best way I can think of to guarantee a profitable drug trade in America.

Paul Kelly

Boulder, CO

Nostalgic for War

I have to comment on Michael Valdez Moses' "Virtual Warriors" (January). The "explosion" of motion pictures about World War II resulted from the success of Saving Private Ryan. The formula worked so well that other movies jumped on the bandwagon. World War ii was the last war that occurred when our country was still naive. People trusted and believed in their government (even if it wasn't innocent then either). It was the last time that we fought a real evil. It's understandable that people today would be nostalgic about such a time.

Writing about Enemy at the Gates, Moses mentions that due to the Cold War's end the movie reflects a more positive attitude toward Russia. He says the true evil of the movie is fascism. Did he see the first 30 minutes? Did he watch the scenes where the Russian soldiers prepared to battle the Germans and every other man was forced into the field without a gun? Or the scene where those same men, after getting hit by a barrage of German firepower, retreat only to get shot dead by their own Russian officers? The officers of the Russian army sure defined evil for me.