Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jan 2001
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2001 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: Rich Silverman
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n036/a05.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/traffic.htm (Traffic)

ONE TOKE OVER THE LINE

Dan Gardner's report is perhaps one of the most important articles to grace 
the front page of a major metropolitan newspaper in years. Hopefully, this 
article, the release of the Hollywood movie "Traffic" and the outcry of 
such sober voices as Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico will herald an age in 
American politics when this topic can be discussed openly, free of the 
superficial stigma that has been attached for too long.

No other problem facing the nation today is as important as the so-called 
war on drugs. No other problem is as vilified as the so-called war on 
drugs. Clearly, our nation's drug policies are an enormous, and enormously 
expensive, failure. It's money thrown into a black hole, for no positive 
results have ever come from it.

However, Gardner fails to address the other, more human costs of this 
American folly. The drug war has been the direct cause of the whittling 
away of many civil liberties. Today, a suspected drug dealer--even a 
suspected petty user--is considered guilty until proven innocent. 
Additionally, the drug war tends to attack minorities far out of proportion 
to their use of a particular drug. It's time for America to wake up to the 
futility of its drug program.

Rich Silverman, Near North Side
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