Pubdate: Sat, 11 Jun 2011 Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO) Copyright: 2011 The Gazette Contact: http://www.gazette.com/sections/opinion/submitletter/ Website: http://www.gazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/165 Author: Glen Butler WAR ON DRUGS POINTS In response to the June 10 editorial "Our View: More reasons to end the drug war," there are several issues I'd like to address. First, the term "war on drugs" is a misnomer: although that phrase has roots back in the Nixon era over four decades ago, it is no longer used by U.S. government officials, for a variety of reasons. A primary reason is that the problem today is much larger than just drugs: Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) active in our region have expanded their "business" lines of operation into dozens of other illegal activities, including weapons and human trafficking, kidnapping, money laundering, extortion, agricultural/mineral/oil theft, piracy, and even gruesome, medieval-like crimes such as "body parts harvesting." Looking through the sole lens of drug trafficking minimizes the bigger picture. Second, joining the growing chorus calling for "decriminalization" of drugs without considering the negative implications is irresponsible. Many media outlets have jumped to cite the recommendations of the Global Commission on Drug Policy's 2 June report this week, yet few have attempted to challenge the wisdom therein (perhaps because of the name recognition of some of its authors). A debate on legalization is beyond the scope of this letter, but a balanced start would be to look at some of the readily available information against such a plan, such as http://www.jus tice.gov/dea/ongoing/legalization .html. Moreover, what drugs should be legalized? Where do you draw the line? Finally, the elephant in our national dispensary is the fact that American demand for drugs is the real fuel behind this conflict. Rather than decriminalizing drug use -- which would not address the billions of our stressed economy already spent on drug-related health care and social costs -- a better approach would be to improve collective efforts at demand reduction. Hollywood celebrities, political leaders, and yes -- newspaper editors -- could assist this effort greatly by helping to stigmatize and de-glamorize illicit drug use. And drug abusers would do well to remember that the next time they snort a line, there is likely blood on their hands that can be traced back to the streets of Juarez or Sinaloa. Instead of criticizing government efforts to increase hemispheric security and safety and calling for an end to the "war" by legalizing drugs, we should be grateful to the Mexican security forces and U.S. Law Enforcement and other agencies courageously fighting the TCO scourge on our behalf. Glen Butler Colorado Springs - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom