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DRUG WAR & MEDIA

Editor:

The foreign press reports, on almost a daily basis, that U.S.-imposed drug policy is becoming increasingly isolated as leaders in Europe, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, much of the Caribbean and Canada begin to renounce this policy catastrophe.  Yet we hear little of this from our nation's media.

The president of Mexico has stated, concerning legalization, that "Humanity someday will see that it is best," and he has appointed high-level cabinet officials who support his position, but it's largely unreported by U.S.  news sources.

President Fox is not alone south of the border, by any means.

...The president of Uruguay, Jorge Batlle, became the first Latin American head of state to call for legalizing drugs, [and he did so] in front of a large number of U.S.  correspondents last autumn at a Latin American presidentsí summit in Panama.  Again, in Mexico City, in front of a huge gathering of U.S.  news reporters at the December 1 inauguration of Mexican president Vicente Fox, Batlle spoke this 'heresy' and apparently no reporter besides a Spanish wire service had the audacity to report it.  Where, might I ask, was the American press?

...Just report it, our people will decide and, much like our ancestors, most Americans are bound to conclude that this pork-barrel pariah called drug prohibition, has never, can never, and will never work....Americaís "War On Drugs" has evolved into a civil war waged on our own people, pure and simple.

Mike Plylar Mr.  Plylar writes from Kremmling, CO.