Pubdate: Sun, 11 Dec 2005 Source: Seattle Times (WA) Copyright: 2005 The Seattle Times Company Contact: http://www.seattletimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409 Author: Allan Erickson Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1901/a05.html UP AGAINST THE WEAL Never in the history of this nation has any policy been as detrimental to our professed love of liberty and our democratic process as the War On (some) Drugs. From corruption of our nation's community police agencies to the death of innocents (not just from gang-warfare crossfire, but in wrong-address drug raids), the cost of continued prohibition will prove fatal to our freedoms and the Constitution protecting them. When the U.S. has gone from a global champion of freedom to the most imprisoned nation on Earth, it is heartening to see law-enforcement officials joining the voices of opposition to the drug war. Hopefully, our newspapers will soon join the clamor against a policy that has become, truthfully and sadly, the front line of creeping fascism in the former land of the free. Allan Erickson, Drug Policy Forum of Oregon, Eugene, Ore. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake