Pubdate: Wed, 10 May 2000 Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL) Copyright: 2000 The Sun-Times Co. Contact: 401 N. Wabash, Chicago IL 60611 Feedback: http://www.suntimes.com/geninfo/feedback.html Website: http://www.suntimes.com/ Author: Stephen Young Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n592/a02.html MAKE SENSE, NOT WAR Eric Sterling [column, April 30] is correct about the perversity of drug sentencing laws, but sentencing is just one of the drug war's many perversities. If top military leaders such as Col. James Hiett, who are supposed to stop the flow of drugs into America, aren't immune from drug-related corruption, who is? Drug czar Barry McCaffrey tells us the phrase "drug war" is an inappropriate metaphor for U.S. drug policy, even though his entire career was spent in the military, and the Clinton administration wants to throw another billion-plus dollars in military aid to Colombia. Beyond the escalation of this war that can't be won, Al Gore now tells us that the real solution to drug problems is to keep prisoners in jail until they can pass a drug test. This acknowledges that drugs are in prisons. If we can't keep drugs out of prisons, how are we ever going to keep them out of our supposedly free society? Gore and Hiett prove illegal drugs never will be eradicated, even if we use all our military might while turning our own country into a huge jail. Prohibition has done nothing but make illegal drugs more potent, profitable and available. It's time to regulate currently illegal substances, just as we regulate alcohol and tobacco, America's most deadly recreational drugs. Stephen Young, Roselle - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk