Pubdate: Sun, 29 Feb 2004 Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL) Copyright: 2004 St. Petersburg Times Contact: http://connect.sptimes.com/contactus/letterstoeditor.html Website: http://www.sptimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419 Author: Calvina Fay Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n311/a13.html?19515 DRUG WAR IS WORTH THE BATTLE Re: Phony war defeats free speech, by Robyn Blumner, Feb. 22. At a time when the Tampa Bay area is still reeling from the horrific abduction and death of an 11-year-old at the hand of a drug abuser, Robyn Blumner calls for an end to the drug war. She quotes a known proponent of drug legalization who states that the drug war is really about "the culture clash." No, it's really about the insidious effect of illicit drugs on all of us and the price that we pay both as a society and as individuals for the scourge of addiction. In the year 2000 alone, drug abuse cost American society an estimated $160-billion. That's just the somewhat quantifiable monetary cost. To use Ms. Blumner's statistics, the cost of communicating an antidrug message to our children is $145-million. Which would you rather pay? We cannot put a price on the suffering of families, especially children, from drug addiction. Consider how many children are impacted by their parents' drug abuse. Some 80 percent of people incarcerated or in the criminal justice system have substance abuse problems. The Times has recently printed articles about the children of meth addicts now in their grandparents' care and children abandoned by their mother on Christmas Day while she went to sell her body to buy drugs. Yes, we fight the drug war because rescuing our children from addiction's grip is worth the battle. Saving Carlie Brucia would have been worth any price. - -- Calvina L. Fay, executive director, Drug Free America Foundation, Inc., St. Petersburg - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom