Pubdate: Sat, 20 Apr 2002
Source: Asheville Citizen-Times (NC)
Copyright: 2002 Asheville Citizen-Times
Contact:  http://www.citizen-times.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/863
Author: Mett Ausley

FAILED WAR ON DRUGS THREATENS OUR RIGHTS

A recent letter, "Testing first line of defense against drugs," 
(AC-T, April 5), notes the war on drugs to be "a dismal failure," 
with jails and prisons "likely our least drug-free zones." A 
reasonable person might conclude the eradication of drugs to be 
unattainable and recommend moderated policies, but this author 
insists we have yet to "get serious" about drug use, and proposes 
ubiquitous random drug testing "with consequences at all levels of 
our society" (banishment to the drug-infested prisons, I suppose). 
This ghastly idea might be dismissed as extremist, but the 
politicians and bureaucrats who have fashioned our drug policies are 
as afflicted with denial, delusion and magical thinking as this 
writer, who mocks the notion that forced drug testing in schools 
might be "a poor civics lesson." These opportunists regard personal 
liberty and its embodiment in our laws as impediments to be trampled 
and shoved aside in their stampede toward an illusory goal. Yes it is 
time to "get serious," put substance use into proper perspective, and 
recognize that the war on drugs poses a grave threat to our 
traditions of free will, liberty and rights. In this regard, DARE is 
indeed a poor substitute for civics class.

Mett Ausley,

Lake Waccamaw
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