The Limo Jet: Its Time Is Coming (int'l edition)

Richard Nobel's F1 has caught on to something most business people want but can't afford: less spent in travel--in this case, getting from one uncrowded small airport to another quickly, bypassing the hub (''Taxi! Get me to Nebraska,'' Science & Technology, Nov. 20). But Nobel's planes (and the comparable Pilatus PC-12) cost $2 million apiece.

Imagine flying in and out of small airports at speeds greater than 400 mph, at altitudes more than 40,000 feet (above most of the bad weather), and with the safety of two jet engines--all for half the cost of the F1. With initial funding of more than $60 million, a new line of ''Limo jets'' will take to the sky in 2003. At $837,000 apiece, they will do for business turbojets what the Cirrus Design SR20 did for piston aircraft: revolutionize them.

Fast, efficient, and safe point-to-point transportation at unheard-of pricing will explode demand. Instead of paying for one first-class ticket from New York to Jacksonville, Fla., a small business will call the local flexjet operator and take the boss and a team of four along for no extra cost--in half the driving time to Newark, N.J., to catch the Continental Airlines plane. Heck, I'll take my family at that price.

Alexander A. Kulpecz
London

The Ban on Drugs Is What Gives Pushers Their Oomph (int'l edition)

If U.S. drug warriors succeed in their Sisyphean task of eradicating the supply of coca in South America, domestic methamphetamine production will boom to meet the demand (''The war on coca: How far will the U.S. go?'' International Business, Nov. 20). Thanks to successes at eradicating marijuana overseas, a resulting increase in domestic cultivation has made marijuana America's No. 1 cash crop. As long as there is a demand, there will be a supply.

Destabilizing entire countries will not make America drug-free, but sensible regulation could feasibly undermine the volatile black market. As the most popular illicit drug, marijuana provides the contacts that introduce Americans to harder drugs. This ''gateway'' is a direct result of marijuana's illegal status, not the plant itself. Illegal drug dealers do not I.D. for age, but they do push more profitable, addictive drugs such as cocaine or heroin when given the chance.

Regulation is desperately needed to restrict access to drugs. As counterintuitive as it may seem, replacing marijuana prohibition with regulation would ultimately do a better job protecting children from drugs than funding civil war in Colombia.

Robert Sharpe
Lindesmith Center--
Drug Policy Foundation
Washington