Pubdate: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 Source: The Monitor (TX) Copyright: 2002 The Monitor Contact: http://www.themonitor.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1250 Author: Stephen Heath Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n004/a12.html Cited: Drug Policy Forum of Florida http://www.drugsense.org/dpffl FAILED DRUG POLICIES To the editor: Re: Editorial "Bad Combination," Jan. 2). Thanks for your astute rebuttal of the Robert Novak column wherein he promotes continued strict law enforcement solutions to deal with our nation's very real problem of drug abuse. Suggestions that the war in Afghanistan should be maintained or escalated due to that region's primary role in opium production are also misdirected. In the Mideast and Muslim worlds, alcohol is not only illegal, its use is considered a religious sin. If these countries were to mimic America's foreign policy, they would send attack planes to bomb the various distillers and alcohol distribution companies throughout the U.S. And when they did, they would be rightly condemned for overstepping their bounds internationally. We should likewise condemn our own federal government for forcing its failed drug policies on other sovereign countries. No matter how many bombs we drop on Afghan opium fields and regardless of how many American citizens we force into prison cages, not a single drug addict will be any closer to true recovery. And our civil liberties will continue to diminish until the war against Americans is ended. Stephen Heath, Drug Policy Forum of Florida, Clearwater, Fla. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake