Source: Chicago Tribune Contact: Pubdate: Jan. 16, 1998 Section: Voice of the People - Letters to the editor Website: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/ POISONOUS POLICY SAN JOSE, Calif. - Your article "City cop scandals dash drug trials" (Metro, Dec. 24) clearly shows how our backward drug policy is the core of our drug problems. We prohibit drugs, which creates a profitable, virulent black market, and then even our police, who are in charge of eliminating that black market, get sucked into the allure of fast money. So how are we supposed to win a war that manifests the very problems it is intended to eliminate? If we were to have a regulated system of drug distribution, we would completely eliminate drug dealers, corrupt cops and the violence that often erupts between the two. We could then use doctors to focus all our energy on what is supposed to be the real problem with drugs - abuse. Joel W. Johnson