Pubdate: Sun, 04 Oct 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: Garry Cooper

FAILED DRUG WAR NO LONGER MAKES FISCAL SENSE

Can any of you out there honestly say that the drug war launched six 
decades ago has accomplished anything at all besides building a 
massive police/prison industry?

Has it curtailed drug use by our youth or lessened the supply? Not at 
all. Demand is at an all-time high and prices are at an all-time low 
due to the oversupply. All that ever happens are minor fluctuations 
in price and huge increases in the costs of our police/prison 
bureaucracy, our court system, and the rest of the useless 
organizations involved in the drug war.

Is your goal to make sure the 55 percent of our 
police/prison/judicial personnel that exist because of the drug war 
are highly paid and have complete job security or would you rather 
pursue a new policy that actually helps curtail drug use and the 
expansion of cartels?

If you accept that the current drug war is a complete failure, which 
is obvious, why not demand change immediately no matter what the 
police/prison union propaganda machine feeds you as they fight for 
their lucrative jobs and display their willingness to throw our 
country and our youth under the bus in the name of their job security 
and exorbitant benefits packages.

You don't keep drugs away from kids - you keep kids away from drugs, 
with after school sports, music, art, 4-H, auto shop, etc. We can pay 
for it all by closing prisons, legalizing pot, and treating addicts.

Why knowingly continue to pursue a failed policy? It's insane.

- - Garry Cooper, Durham
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom