Pubdate: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL) Copyright: 1999 St. Petersburg Times. Contact: http://www.sptimes.com/ Forum: http://www.sptimes.com/Interact.html Author: Anne Beggs WAR AGAINST DRUGS IS A WASTE OF MONEY Editor: I would like to express my appreciation to the Citrus Times for carrying Jan Glidewell as a columnist. I realize he might be slightly off-beat for some readers, but I am a fan. I especially agreed with his column about the "war" on drugs as a waste of time and effort. The average citizen is paying dearly for this so-called righteous program of penalizing the little guys. Our prison systems are forever bulging, necessitating more and more housing at a phenomenal cost. The big-time drug bosses are seldom caught. Even some of our very own "protectors" in the field have been known to be on the take. I do not endorse these drugs, but if the Big Money were eliminated, crime would be conspicuously reduced. Even some conservatives such as William Buckley endorse this thinking. As for the youths, there will still be some offenders, but there won't be as much mayhem committed in order to occasionally indulge. Money is the root of a lot of evil. Let's be realistic. Money spent on prisons should be spent on education. Anne Beggs Inverness - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck