Pubdate: Tue, 31 Oct 2000
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Copyright: 2000, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Contact:  414-224-8280
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/
Forum: http://www.jsonline.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimate.cgi
Author: Paul Mozina

CANDIDATES SILENT ON FAILURE OF DRUG WAR

The war on drugs continues to cause enormous harm and do precious little 
good. Neither George W. Bush nor Al Gore has presented his plan for winning 
the war.

If we had wasted as many dollars, destroyed as many lives and taken as bad 
a licking in any other 30-year-old war, people would be demanding that our 
politicians present their "exit strategies." How are the politicians going 
to get us out of this mess?

Drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who embodied the drug war more than anyone, 
is resigning effective Jan. 6, but not before launching his "Plan Colombia" 
disaster.

There is still time to ask Bush and Gore how they will replace McCaffrey. 
In what direction are they going to take the war on drugs? How do they 
measure success? When will the mission be complete?

What impact does the war on drugs have on the prison building boom, the 
increasing violence of police SWAT teams, our civil rights, racial 
profiling in law enforcement, the spread of HIV, mandatory minimum 
sentencing, civil asset forfeiture, intimidating foreign governments and 
other issues?

These questions need to be debated publicly before we vote and before we 
allow our government to continue to aimlessly flail away.

Paul Mozina, Milwaukee
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