Pubdate: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 Source: Japan Times (Japan) Copyright: 2001 The Japan Times Contact: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/755 Author: Kirk Muse Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n2036/a02.html DRUG WAR BREEDS VESTED INTERESTS Thank you for publishing Mike Plylar's Dec. 5 letter, "America's drug war tragedy." America's counterproductive war on drugs continues because it has created a huge bureaucracy of people, industries and institutions with a vested financial interest in its continuation. Today the U.S. has more prisoners than any other country in history, primarily because of the drug war. Those 2 million prisoners create hundreds of thousands of relatively high-paying government jobs. California prison guards with just a high school education make more money than teachers with master's degrees. Obviously, our priorities are mixed up. Government employees with drug war-created jobs will do anything in their power to make sure the drug war never ends. Until we can solve this problem, our drug war and prisons will continue to grow. And our freedom will continue to shrink. KIRK MUSE, Vancouver, Washington - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake