LETTERS: TOBACCO, ALCOHOL ARE GATEWAY DRUGS

To the editor:

Thank you for providing an excellent educational series on the methamphetamine problem. By increasing community awareness, you have assisted the process of family and community involvement in addressing the problem of drug abuse in our society. Reducing the demand for drugs is indeed everyone's responsibility, and as you pointed out on Sept. 2, drugs are bad news -- all drugs. Any attempt to reduce demand must focus on tobacco and alcohol, since youth abuse of these drugs is clearly on the rise and precedes other drug involvement. Unfortunately, tobacco and alcohol represent the greatest challenge in preventing drug-related behavior due to their legal advantage in the adult population. I would like to suggest that you continue your series to include feature articles regarding health implications, attitudes and access to these gateway drugs, tobacco and alcohol.

JIM MAGINELCommunity 2000 Prevention Resource Center Southeast Missouri State University

Cape Girardeau