Pubdate: Mon, 08 Oct 2007 Source: Journal Standard, The (Freeport, IL) Copyright: 2007 The Journal Standard Contact: http://www.journalstandard.com/shared-content/perform/?domain_name=journalstandard.com&form_template=letters Website: http://www.journalstandard.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3182 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1093/a03.html Author: N. Bill Smeathers IT'S TIME TO END THE WAR ON DRUGS It seems my letter to the J-S Editor, "Terrifying Justice" Sept. 2, generated very positive and supportive input from the public, and not just locally, but rather from across the country. Sept. 5: "Letter Prompts Anger, Sadness." Sept. 7: "Put an End To Prohibition." And Sept. 7: "Keep Police in Line." One point, just how "controllingly" out of control our law enforcement community has become. Understand. I am not in anyway opposed to law enforcement. As a civilized society we must have it. However, we do not need law enforcement which functions in such a way that it becomes oppressive. Sadly enough, in one way or another the problem stems from or is influenced by the war on drugs, and why we need to fight to end the war on drugs. To end this war, where do we start? There are so many important reasons. We have over a half million non-violent drug offenders clogging our prisons and jails. Court dockets are a mess. Mandatory minimum sentences, and inflexible sentencing guidelines, condemn many low level offenders to years and even decades behind bars, often based only on the word of a confidential informant, some of whom are even compensated. With 2 million people behind bars, the U.S. leads the world in incarceration at a level beyond any time in our history. Drug prohibition creates a lucrative black market that causes violence and disorder, particularly in the inner cities. It draws young people into lives of crime. Laws in some areas criminalizing syringe possession, the drive behind much underground drug use and sales, encouraging needle sharing increases the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C. Thousands of Americans die from drug overdoses or poisonings by adulterants every year. Most of these deaths would be preventable through quality control which would exist if drugs were legal. Our (America's) drug in the South American Andes fuels a continuing civil war in Columbia, with prohibition-generated illicit drug profits aiding its escalation. Opium growing, and the attempts to stop it, both hurt Afghanistan's attempts at nation building and helps our enemies. Patients needing medical marijuana, and the people who provide it to them, go without or they live in fear of arrest and prosecution. Doctor's fears of running afoul of the law causes large numbers of Americans in need of opiates for chronic pain to go under-treated or untreated altogether. Profiling assaults the dignity of members of minority groups, and of the poor, denying them equal justice. From drug testing in our schools, to SWAT and SLANT teams invading our homes and terrorizing our children and handicapped persons, assaulting the citizenry's very existence, privacy has been gutted. That's not all of it, and it isn't a pretty picture. This is why we must oppose drug laws - fight to end prohibition, for legalization - because of the harm and the injustice that prohibition is inflicting on so many people in so many different ways. Because we understand that freedom is not just a right to control our bodies and what we put into them, (even though that ought to be enough). And for so many reasons that I don't know where to start - to save the lives of the addicted, so many patients can be treated, for privacy, for peace, for safety, to restore ethics in government, to end the injustices large and small - for all these reasons and more, we must put an end to the drug prohibition. These views are correct. This cause is just. We must fight to make this a better world for all. N. Bill Smeathers Freeport - --- MAP posted-by: Derek