Pubdate: Wed, 06 Jun 2001
Source: State, The (SC)
Copyright: 2001 The State
Contact:  http://www.thestate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/426
Author: Hilel B Salomon

DRUG 'WAR' A WASTE OF RESOURCES

Jim Mathews' May 16 response to Roger Sargent's cogent and compelling 
arguments against our current drug laws illustrate the role of bureaucratic 
self-interest in our ruinous so-called "war on drugs."

This "war" is not merely unwinnable; it is undemocratic, divisive and 
harmful to those of us who do not take drugs or even recommend their use. 
The efforts of the federal and local governments to protect people from 
themselves have eroded our civil liberties, increased violent crime (by 
guaranteeing that the price of drugs remain artificially high) and have led 
to the egregious misuse of our police forces. The documented cases of 
agencies such as those in Louisiana that regularly confiscate private 
property and harass innocent civilians on the pretext of "possible drug 
possession," or the nebulously worded "intent to distribute" constitute a 
small fraction of the abuse of power in the name of drug-law enforcement.

Personally, I think that the use of addictive substances is dumb. Any form 
of dependency is a forfeiture of one's independence and free will. 
Nevertheless, I think that our Constitution was never intended to deny 
people the right to act stupidly when such acts do not endanger anyone else.

We need to take the money devoted to denying Americans control of their own 
bodies and use it to attack legitimate enemies such as poverty, illness, 
infant mortality, teen pregnancy and ignorance. Properly executed, such 
legitimate "wars" would do more to lower drug addiction than all the 
Draconian measures petty bureaucrats could possibly devise.

Hilel B. Salomon
Columbia
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