I was driving taxi in the dead of night, five to 10 years ago, carrying several young men. One was telling about a party he had attended. It had "sex and any drug you wanted; the highest class party." The taxi fell silent, of course, as people reacted to such a confidence being voiced behind the ears of an unknown cabbie.

Do you recognize drug pushing when you see it? Like a Tupperware party or a Pampered Chef presentation, it has a multi-level retail structure. After he has partied often enough, the host asks him to start paying; or get free drugs by giving sex or bringing friends. These friends, in their turn, will give sex or bring friends. Friend-to-friend sales are the most effective kind.

There's a technique for recruiting beyond one's circles of influence. The gang will watch a target, and see who her friends are, and learn her interests. They'll befriend her, "We have so much in common!" Of course, they'll introduce a new interest - drugs. Friend-to-friend.

There's drug pushing in the legal market, too. Purdue Pharma marketed an addictive drug, saying it was non-addictive. Naive doctors prescribed too freely. Of course addictions happened.

That was bad enough, but then the drug warriors - rogue federal agents - did real damage by threatening to arrest the doctors, and forcing these new addicts out onto the black market: requiring sex, drug pushing and crime. And causing 59,000 overdose deaths in 2016.

The "war on drugs" increases the rates of new addictions, overdoses and crime; it's dirty, destructive and evil. Stop it.

Return the addicts to the doctor's office, to be stabilized, kept alive, and successful in their life pursuits.

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Letter: War on drugs destructive and evil - Moscow-Pullman Daily News