Tough drug laws as a means of getting addicts into treatment and keeping them there are the best hope for helping the nation’s huge number of heroin addicts.

Ed Gogek, M.D.

Prescott, Ariz.

My family lives near the border between Baja California and California. Officer Simmers knows what we all know: As long as drugs are illegal, we force users into deadly situations, and innocent people die daily either at the hands of the cartel or at the tendrils of addiction. Of course, as soon as the drugs are legal, all of the usual profit takers line up for the dollars: corporations and politicians. I believe in capitalism, but the war is lost. Legalize the drugs and move forward. We will never end these stories, but drug legalization may reduce the stigma and alleviate some of the guilt and pain. Thank you to Brooke and her family.

Brenda J. Martin

San Diego, Calif.

Opioids hit home, but the ramifications of the drug war are felt every day in narco-terrorized regions south of the U.S. border. Prohibition causes more death than the prohibited substances. Why can’t we manage drug use like a symptom that should be harm minimized? Drugs should be controlled completely without capitalistic actors selling them. As ridiculous as it may seem, the only way to really control a substance is to be the only seller of it, and that means our government should monopolize the sale of these controlled substances in a way to reduce their usage and minimize their harm while denying black-market money going to cruel and cunning capitalistic actors. The Drug Enforcement Administration should sell all controlled substances as a non-capitalistic agent and work with scientists, doctors, and treatment professionals to ensure people who use controlled substances do so as little as possible, through direct price control and professional treatment programs.

James Kim

Los Angeles, Calif.

Sergeant Kevin Simmers has suffered a terrible loss in the overdose death of his daughter, and as a father my heart goes out to him. I also commend him for being brave enough to reflect on his part in the completely misguided and unjust War on Drugs.

That said, it cannot go unnoticed that Mr. Simmers (at least by the details presented in the story) failed to recognize the very real damage that his police work did to others—specifically African Americans—until tragedy visited his life.

Nearly 50 years of the War on Drugs and we have accomplished nothing. The effort was never meant to “help” anyone, but rather to utilize a new tool in ruling over the poor and the nonwhite.

I sincerely hope that Mr. Simmers continues to speak out about the damage of the drug war, with some emphasis on the falsehoods used to justify it in the first place.

Joshua C. Powers

Lawrence, Kan.