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THE FAILING WAR ON DRUGS

Dear Editor,

Many thanks to The New Paltz Oracle for the two editorials, "Should Students with Drug Convictions Get Financial Aid?" ( Thur, Nov.  1 ). 

While the nuances of this specific aspect of drug policy are often times subtle, there are also aspects that are blunt and obnoxious.  Such is the question of financial aid for those with a drug conviction. 

The first thought that comes to my mind is this is a form of double jeopardy wherein a student with a conviction for a drug offense is being punished a second time.  The second thought is why are there no such penalties for convictions of other crimes?

The drug war in its many manifestations is a pox on this nation.  Just as our first Prohibition of alcohol failed, serving only to make the criminal syndicates rich, promoting corruption and increased harm to youth, today's War On some Drugs -- Prohibition II -- fails for all the same reasons but at a level multiplied exponentially. 

Consider that in Colombia, cocaine is at record levels of production.  Afghanistan opium is at record levels.  Cannabis in the United States is now our nation's number one agricultural commodity worth more than corn and soybeans combined. 

Former drug Czar Gen.  Barry McCaffrey has described our current prison system, the world's largest both per capita and in total numbers, as the world's new gulag.  In fact, for black males, our rate of incarceration is almost six times greater than was that of South Africa at the height of Apartheid. 

There is far too much wrong with the drug war to continue it a day longer.  Denial of student aid for drug offenses is just another symptom of our cultural insanity, a danger to our social fabric and a threat to a nation once, but no longer, proudly known as the "land of the free."

Sincerely,

Allan Erickson, Drug Policy Forum of Oregon