MARTIN Kavanagh ( Letters, May 19 ) takes us up to the plate, but there's no pitch.  Which faithful reader of a newspaper thinks the drug war is anything but a waste of money? But what are the alternatives?

Counseling is not going to stop addiction for many.  Putting the war under the auspices of a Department of Health and Human Services and calling addiction a health problem might be a start, but it's only a start.  Selective legalization might defuse part of the problem, but certainly won't do anything for hard-core addictions.  The only thing that's going to stop the ``pharmacological McCarthyism'' is when enough people realize the real cost of the drug war is destruction of our families, neighborhoods, workplaces and schools.

Your newspaper could open the debate with a series of articles on alternatives to the drug war.  It's time.

J.  M.  Berry, Campbell