Pubdate: Sun, 27 Mar 2005
Source: Columbian, The (WA)
Copyright: 2005 The Columbian Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.columbian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/92
Author: Gregory Taufer

HERRINGTON WRONG

I disagree with Gregg Herrington's March 18 opinion column, "Drug war not 
over, so don't cut support." The drug war has been over for years because 
it is an abysmal failure. Throwing more money into the "drug war" is not 
the solution.

Care to guess which U.S. president first used the term "war on drugs?" Was 
it Richard Nixon? Ronald Reagan? Try Dwight Eisenhower in 1958. It is now 
2005. That's 47 years of throwing ever-increasing amounts of money at the 
drug problem.

Until this country wakes up and realizes that it cannot treat the drug 
problem as a criminal offense as opposed to a medical condition, the 
problem will never go away. Abraham Lincoln once stated: "Government 
cannot, and should not, legislate morality. It is not the government's duty 
to control an individual's behavior by making moral issues a criminal offense."

Smart man. Too bad no one listens to him. It is time to end the war on 
drugs entirely.

Gregory Taufer, Vancouver
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