Pubdate: Mon, 03 Aug 2015 Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA) Copyright: 2015 Chico Enterprise-Record Contact: http://www.chicoer.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861 Note: Letters from newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority Author: Hugh Rhodes ENDING DRUG WAR WOULD FIX A LOT OF PROBLEMS I invite readers to look up egomania and trumpery in the dictionary. But heck, I'll save them the time. Egomania is the obsessive preoccupation with the self. Trumpery is showy but worthless finery; nonsense: trickery. Also, consider "chameleon." Donald Trump goes to Laredo, on the border, and lambasts trade with China, Korea and Japan, but no tirade against Mexico. Laredo is a commerce center for trade with Mexico. No Mexicans "eating our lunch" verbiage from El Trumpo. We see him hugging the mayor and congratulating the police chief. He even suggests a federal government position to the mayor - then "boom," out of there as he is feeling threatened so close to the border. Now the Trump total wall with Mexico is only "certain sections" need a fence. "El Chapo," the drug lord, escapes a Mexican high-security prison via a mile-long tunnel. "El Chapo" and the cartels rule. We fool ourselves that any wall will stop drugs - too much profit for the cartels. Drugs go into jails and prisons like the air. We can minimize illegal immigration. Rick Perry has high-tech ideas. Is it not time to end the drug war? How about decriminalization of all drugs? Put them in the drugstore, combined with education on drugs and the dangers down to third grade. Uniform pharmaceutical doses will stop inadvertent overdoses. Have we not learned that government cannot legislate morality? The individual is responsible for his or her behavior, even in instances of overdose and death. Any better ideas out there? - - Hugh Rhodes, Magalia - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom