Pubdate: Sat, 13 Sep 2003
Source: Sun Herald (MS)
Copyright: 2003, The Sun Herald
Contact:  http://www.sunherald.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/432
Author: Debbie Hall

FAILED WAR ON DRUGS HAS ESCALATED THE PROBLEM

Our 30-year war on drugs has failed. If we were going to win, we would
have already won. What do we have to show for more than $20 billion
per year and 2.1 million behind bars? Remove one dealer and two
replace him. It's a basic economic principle called "supply and demand."

Thanks to this war, drugs are now more deadly and prevalent. The DEA
swarmed the border to prevent marijuana importation. Traffickers
respond by flying in cocaine, a more condensed and profitable drug.
The DEA squeezed harder on the border and now we have a boom in
homemade, highly lethal, synthetic drugs. We only thought marijuana
and cocaine were bad!

In truth, both the DEA and drug kingpins embrace the war on drugs. If
it dies, so will their cash cow. Most of what the public knows of this
war is propaganda. Thanks to years of brainwashing and fear tactics,
most reject common sense. The majority of crime connected with drugs
is a result of prohibition, not drugs or drug users.

I'm not pro-drug. I am against our approach. It doesn't work, and it
never will. Until we address this problem realistically as a medical,
social and economic issue, it will continue to escalate. It is not a
criminal problem and should be removed from the failed hands of our
justice system.

"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably
by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for
government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be
enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in
this country is closely connected with this."

- - Albert Einstein, "My First Impression of the U.S.A.,"
1921.

Have we learned nothing from history?

 Debbie Hall, Biloxi  ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin