Pubdate: Wed, 22 Aug 2012
Source: North County Times (Escondido, CA)
Copyright: 2012 North County Times
Contact: http://www.nctimes.com/app/forms/letters/index.php
Website: http://www.nctimes.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1080
Author: Carole Shanahan

CURE WORSE THAN DISEASE

In his Aug. 15 letter, Buddie Gran has some ugly things to say about 
the present administration regarding problems with guns, drugs and 
death at the border. He seems to feel the present administration is 
at fault for it all.

Actually, our country's war on drugs is the cause, which goes back to 
the 1920s and was accelerated into a war after Vietnam, when 
returning veterans were found to be using heroin and other hard-line 
drugs, and seemingly the whole country was high on marijuana. 
President Nixon was the first to declare it a war. George H.W. Bush 
went further. And don't forget our present war on the poppy fields of 
Afghanistan.

All of this has made selling drugs a great way for criminals to get 
very rich, and also made a fortune for the manufacturers of the 
weapons and equipment our local police use and the "Star Wars" safety 
gear they wear. It has turned our country into a land of constant 
conflict and filled our prisons with young men, whose only crime may 
have been using marijuana. It is a case of the cure being worse than 
the disease.

Carole Shanahan

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