Pubdate: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2001 The Dallas Morning News Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117 Author: Bob Ramsey, Drug Policy Forum of Texas DRUG WAR CASUALTIES While we've got your attention ... if only for a few moments. In the wake of Peru's killing of a Baptist missionary and her 7-month-old baby, God-fearing Americans may be willing to think critically about the drug war. Every day we hear of more people being killed in drug war-related violence. About once a week an innocent person is killed by earnest law enforcers. As we mourn these people who were sacrificed to the drug war while doing God's work, we might reflect upon the notion that medicine has become the established religion of the United States. Legal drugs have become our gods; illegal drugs are the devil. The doctors are priests and dope dealers are demons. Prayer is banned in schools, replaced by law enforcement officers preaching medical doctrine. Perhaps we are being punished, as we were by 1920s Prohibition, for believing man's law can impose those moral values which must come from within. When we put our trust in an arm of flesh, we forsake the Living God. BOB RAMSEY, Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Irving - --- MAP posted-by: Andrew