Pubdate: Wed, 29 May 2002
Source: Times Record News (TX)
Copyright: 2002 The E.W. Scripps Co.
Contact:  http://www.trnonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/995
Author: Mike Plylar and Name withheld

END THE WAR ON DRUGS

Your editorial, "Bad business: U.S. throwing money away fighting this 
aspect of drug war" (May 21), clearly reveals why the prohibition of drugs, 
has, will, and can never work, and why we should never consider connecting 
the war on terrorism to this other continuing policy disaster, the drug war.

If we fight the war on terrorism like we've fought the war on drugs, can we 
expect the same results?

Will terrorists multiply exponentially, be more powerful than ever, cheaper 
to deploy and far deadlier than before? Can we expect terrorists to flood 
across our borders in an unstoppable deluge? How many more prisons will it 
take to hold all these terrorists, when we already lock up more of our 
people than any nation on earth, thanks to the drug war? Will the few civil 
liberties remaining after the war on drugs, now fall prey to the war on 
terrorism?

Apparently the definition of "terrorists" will evolve and change on the 
whim of anonymous bureaucrats, just as the next so-called drug epidemic is 
as predictable as the annual government budget battles and the appointment 
of another drug czar.

If our loss of freedom and civil liberties determines the health of our 
republic, thanks to the war on drugs, our nation is on life support, and 
this latest endless war could quite likely drive a stake through her heart.

It's time to end the war on drugs, before it ends us.

Mike Plylar
Kremmling, Colo.
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Throwing Away Money

I agree with what you're saying in the article on drugs. I also think that 
we should take another look at our policy on sentencing "nonviolent" drug 
offenders. In today's laws on drug offenses, and the sentencing on these 
offenses, a nonviolent druggie, with a clean record prior to this offense, 
will receive a heavier sentencing than a murderer. Violent offenders should 
get all that is allowed by law. So, why is it we spend millions of dollars 
on these druggies in our prison system and only thousands on these violent 
murders and sex offenders? Just what are we thinking? Talk about throwing 
money down the tubes.

Name withheld 
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MAP posted-by: Beth