Pubdate: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Copyright: 2000 Houston Chronicle Contact: Viewpoints Editor, P.O. Box 4260 Houston, Texas 77210-4260 Fax: (713) 220-3575 Website: http://www.chron.com/ Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html Author: Everett Black THE WAR ON DRUGS IS A BIG JOKE The only results are a serious negative impact on our balance of trade and the creation of drug lords who take the same attitude as bootleggers did during Prohibition, opposing any law that might lower street prices. Any drugs interdicted represent only a small fraction of the total supply passing through our system. And when there is a temporary shortage, resulting in price increases, the user is not likely to say, "Well, my habit is getting too expensive. I think I should quit now." More likely there would be a corresponding increase in burglaries, robberies and assaults. The chief result of our misguided effort to regulate an unregulatable product is the criminalization of a huge percentage of our youth. If they are not in prison for doing drugs, they are there for illegal activities, the purpose of which was to obtain drugs. And it certainly does make a difference who you are and who you know. There is a remarkably simple way to settle the question of the illegality of drugs. Let's arrange for every person who is on a federal, state, county, city or precinct payroll to take periodic drug tests, beginning when he or she files for office or applies for work. This would assure us that everyone from the custodian at the courthouse to the president of the United States would have a clear opinion -- one not based on "do as I say, not as I do." Anyone who uses drugs is stupid. The ones who want to perpetuate this escalating system of building new prisons to accommodate more and more of our citizens are even more stupid. Once a person goes to prison, the odds are slim to none that he will ever become a self-sufficient, productive taxpayer. One may survive doing drugs (or not), but rarely does a con become anything but an ex-con. Everett Black, Huntsville - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake