Opposing Views on Drug Stand

Rather than spend our tax dollars on drug prevention among teenagers and rehabilitation for those unfortunates who are already addicted, policy makers continue to spend billions on a war on drugs that was lost before it began.

Broken families, street crime and bloated prisons are the residue of that failed undertaking.

Superior Court Judge James P. Gray and his admonition that the decriminalization of drugs would reverse an escalating plague is a voice of reason (“Orange County Voices,” Sept. 22).

All else seems to have failed. Let us use our dollars to save lives instead of fighting an ineffectual battle against an underground economy.

DOROTHY CHAPMAN

San Clemente

* Judge Gray’s article in The Times is extremely off base. Judge Gray has been advocating the legalization of drugs for a long time. He continues to say we’re losing the war on drugs despite the Cali cartel’s demise in Colombia, as described in The Times on Sept. 7.

Judge Gray’s arguments are weak and wrong. He writes of education, social pressure and treatment as an alternative to prosecution. These things are already in place. Legalizing drugs wouldn’t make them more successful. It would undermine the good that’s being done.

Judge Gray sees firsthand the damage of drugs. Legalization would only take it out of his front-row view. Maybe that’s what he wants. If that’s the case, maybe he should just give up his seat.

PAT WORRALL

Fountain Valley