Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 Source: Boulder Weekly (CO) Copyright: 2009 Boulder Weekly Contact: http://www.boulderweekly.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/57 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n593/a05.html Author: Ralph Givens THE WAR ON PEOPLE (Re: "A fine to fit the crime," cover story, June 4.) Drug czar Gil Kerlikowske's claim that drug prohibition is a "war on drugs" or a "war on a product," and that "We're not at war with people in this country" is proved to be a lie by the hundreds of drug busts targeting people every month. We hear daily reports of 194 people arrested in one operation and 73 more in another, and this cannot be explained away with dissembling remarks about "a war on product." Drugs are not going to prison, people are. The U.S. incarcerates 2.4 million people - the most of any country in the world. We imprison one out of 31 adults - the worst rate in the world. A third of our prisoners are in for drugs, and 60 percent are non-violent users, not sellers. We arrested more than 775,000 people for marijuana possession last year alone. (Source: Congress' Joint Economic Committee.) Many petty "drug criminals" get more prison time than a conviction for malicious castration, second-degree rape, stealing $100,000, robbing a bank, holding up someone with a shotgun or even an act of terrorism, such as contaminating a city's water supply. By any sane definition, this is a "war on people." Ralph Givens Daly City, Calif. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake