Pubdate: Tues, 19 Oct 1999 Source: Amarillo Globe-News (TX) Copyright: 1999 Amarillo Globe-News Contact: http://amarillonet.com/ Forum: http://208.138.68.214:90/eshare/server?action4 Author: R.L. Root AT WAR WITH ANTI-DRUG LORDS I doubt that it is possible to find a better description of why the war on drugs continues than was given by Myron Von Hollingsworth in his Oct. 11 letter, "Criminals winning the drug war." "Maybe the drug war-mongering politicians are required to adhere to the party line of prohibition because law enforcement, customs, the prison industrial complex, the drug-testing industry, the INS, the CIA, the FBI, the DEA and the politicians themselves can't live without the budget justification, not to mention the invisible profits, bribery, corruption and forfeiture benefits that prohibition affords them." The only possible inaccuracy in that statement would be the word "maybe." Mr. Von Hollingsworth's term for those who push this war, "drug war-mongering politicians," is brilliant, although I prefer the label that fits both the politicians and the bureaucrats who have found their own niche in the drug market: "Anti-drug lords" who are every bit the danger to society as the drug lords themselves. I commend Mr. Von Hollingsworth for his straightforward description of this tyranny we call the drug war. It is honorable citizens like himself who will eventually wake the masses to recognize not only this tyranny, but the many that emanate from Washington and are mandated to states and local jurisdictions. It is, after all, the war on drugs that breeds contempt within law enforcement for citizens' civil rights through disregard for individual privacy, right to property, and many other rights defined and declared as inalienable by our Constitution. Even the most basic right, the right to life, has been deemed to be forfeitable by the anti-drug lords who wage this war. R.L. Root Westminster, Calif. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea