Pubdate: Sun, 13 Jul 2003
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2003 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Erin Hildebrandt

UNWINNABLE FIGHT

Do the warriors actually want to win the war? I believe Americans deserve 
to have this question more fully explored. Michael Holzmeister stated, "If 
drugs are as big a scourge as the warriors would have us believe, they are 
going to need a convoy of trucks to haul all the illegal substances away." 
In fact, according to the Associated Press, only 10 to 15 percent of the 
heroin, and roughly 30 percent of the cocaine that hits our streets, is 
intercepted by law enforcement, while it would take the removal of at least 
75 percent to begin to have an impact on drug trafficking. Even under a 
totalitarian regime, this would be impossible.

One enormous problem is that we place all illegal substances under the same 
umbrella, and call them dangerous, while glorifying patented 
pharmaceuticals and alcohol. In foreign papers, they call cannabis "the 
aspirin of the 21st century," while we have "drug czar" John Walters trying 
to tell us medical marijuana is a "cruel hoax." Walters is either being 
willfully ignorant or cruelly deceptive.

There are better ways, and we can make the nation safer for all of us, by 
demanding better from the people we pay to advise us.

ERIN HILDEBRANDT

Smithsburg, Md.
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MAP posted-by: Alex