After reading the students comments (“Young students concerned…” The Reporter, July 17, page 11) it is apparent that what they need most is an education about Constitution and Bill of Rights and how our forefathers fought and died so that we could enjoy personal freedom and liberty.

These kids are just regurgitating what they have been told in D.A.R.E. classes and fail to realize that personal responsibility is the key factor in deciding to use or not use drugs.

It sounds like they want to live in a police state.

Thomas Jefferson said “Those who would trade safety for freedom deserve neither.”

Dave Lane

Santa Cruz, CA

It sounds like the students who want to “get rid of drug users” have been through a DARE program.

Too bad DARE refuses to inform students about the damage done by their lunatic drug prohibition policy.

To wit: There was no such thing as “drug crime” until after America’s drug crusaders outlawed drugs.

When addicts could buy all of the morphine, heroin, cocaine and anything else they wanted cheaply and legally at the corner pharmacy, no one was robbing, whoring and murdering over drugs.

There were no drug gangs, no criminal drug cartels and no such thing as “drug crime.”

All of these things are a direct result of drug prohibition, not drug use.

If these students want to know the true results of prohibition policies, they need to examine the history of Alcohol Prohibition.

It’s worth learning that Eliot Ness never put the bootleggers out of business.

It’s worth learning that repeal and a regulated market for adult alcohol use ended the reign of the booze barons in a few days.

It’s worth learning that we haven’t had a bombing or a shoot out over a beer route since 1933.

Ralph Givens

Daly City, CA