PEKIN, Ill. -- What do Peoria and Mexico have in common?

A whole heap of violence in both places is connected to the drug war, which we are losing worse than we've ever lost any war before.

The phrase "war on drugs" has never been so apt. It used to be just a turn of speech, but make no mistake, it is today a very real war with a high body count.

Just across the river, Peoria has counted 17 homicides this year as of this writing, and 89 shootings, according to media reports. It's impossible to pin down exactly how many of those were drug-related, but it's certainly fair to say that drugs and the gangs that sell them have played a role in many of these shootings.

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I'm writing about Dan Linn's thoughtful letter: "State group backs medical marijuana" (8/5/10).

A couple years ago I had a very close personal friend die from pancreatic cancer after a nine-month battle with this terrible disease. Marijuana did not cure her cancer. However, it make her much more comfortable and able to tolerate her other medications without vomiting.

Would those opposed to legalizing marijuana for medical purposes prefer to have this wonderful mother and grandmother die alone in a jail cell instead of surrounded by her loving family?

It appears so.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

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CHERRY VALLEY - The Cherry Valley Police Department wants local businesses to help with the fight against drug abuse.

The department and LAW Publications will produce literature to distribute to students, young adults and parents with up-to-date drug awareness information.

Local businesses will be asked to purchase advertisements in the LAW drug awareness book. The proceeds from the ads fund the production and distribution of the literature.

LAW representative Ross Fascetta is assisting the department with the program and will visit local businesses to ask for support.

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I'm writing about Ted Z. Manuel's thoughtful Aug. 4 letter "Legalizing pot could help end cartel violence."

Of course, many drug war cheerleaders will claim that re-legalizing pot will be giving in to the drug dealers and drug cartels.

When we re-legalized the drug alcohol in 1933, did we give in to the alcohol cartels?

No. We put them out of business.

Kirk Muse, Mesa, Ariz.

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I'm so relieved to find out that searches can now be conducted on students attending Oak Park and River Forest High School [OPRF clarifies procedures for searching students, News, July 28]. As shown by the most unreliable study ever written, the Illinois State Youth Survey, the high school has a raging drug problem, especially one concerning marijuana use. If you have not taken health class at the high school, let me inform you on marijuana: Marijuana is a drug that is equally as destructive and addicting as heroin, and if smoked, will give you cancer and cause death, unless it is smoked for medicinal purposes or in Amsterdam, for then it will only be as inhibitive as alcohol and isn't a serious threat.

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Thank you for publishing Victoria F. Grizzoffi's column on a sane approach to medical cannabis. What most people do not know is that cannabis has been shown to reduce the risk for certain cancers and shrink tumors, and evidence from numerous studies has shown that cannabis and its chemical compounds, cannabinoids, induce cell apoptosis, or programmed cell death.

A study done by the Medical College of Virginia in 1974 found that THC, a cannabinoid, "slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers and a virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives by as much as 36 percent." Furthermore, cannabis is frequently used in states that permit its medical use to treat the side effects of chemotherapy.

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Loreta Jent's response to my June letter regarding medicinal marijuana was written with good intentions ("Illinois shouldn't OK medical marijuana," July 8; "Other drugs carry more danger than marijuana," June 12).

She does not want to see our nation fall further into "criminal behavior, auto accidents, broken families and lost productivity." I agree. However, I question how she linked marijuana usage to these problems.

The only criminal behavior connected to marijuana usage is the use of the illegal drug and the people who deliver it for personal, untaxed profit. There are no cartels shooting up houses over marijuana. There are no fathers abusing their wives and children while high on pot.

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Jacob Sullum's July 30 column is right -- legal pot would be a boon to economy. But he omitted benefits beyond taxability and jobs. It also would deal a body blow to the Mexican drug cartels and U.S. drug dealers whose turf battles cause unnecessary deaths.

If Proposition 19 passes in California, legalizing pot, other Western states appear ready to swell the trend. In these recessionary times, with every level of government desperate for more revenue yet reluctant to raise taxes, it could become a groundswell in the direction of sanity, given that President Richard Nixon's "War on Drugs," begun in the '70s, has not been won and never shall be.

Meanwhile, we waste billions on all levels of jurisdiction, trying in vain to cope with 24/7 drug traffic.

Ted Z. Manuel,

Hyde Park

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The letter written by the prisoner at the Dixon Correctional Center on July 7 titled Solve problems with education, not incarceration is correct that we need to be investing in education and not prisons.

Prohibition is the root of many nonviolent offenders serving time in prison, and until America learns the lesson of the noble experiment, we will continue to cage humans who choose to use certain substances while allowing alcohol companies to advertise along our highways.

While drug abuse is bad, the war on drugs is much worse. There are victims of no-knock raids, including family pets shot and killed. At the same time, younger people have easier access to these dangerous substances because they are sold by criminals who have no reason to ask for an ID to check age.

America needs to restore liberty by ending Nixon's failed war on drugs.

Note to readers Dan Linn is the executive director of the Illinois National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws.

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A Study Says The Chicago Region Leads The Country In Abuse Of The Drug. We Talk To An Addict, A Cop, A Grieving Mother, A Landlord And A Survivor Fighting To Stay Clean

If you want to understand why Chicago has the nation's most severe heroin problem, drop by a small West Side office that's right at the epicenter.

It's a clinic run by the University of Illinois at Chicago that offers clean syringes, HIV tests and other services to those buying $10 baggies of dope on the drug-soaked streets nearby. Some of its patrons are old-timers, weary and bedraggled, their forearms misshapen with the knots and abscesses from years of shooting up. When you imagine an addict, they're probably what comes to mind.

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Kudos to the Chicago Tribune for "Suburbia's heroin addiction" (Page 1, Aug. 1). With this article the Tribune sheds light on the stark reality that is the growing heroin epidemic in Illinois. This is backed up by the recently released study from Roosevelt University that found that Chicago leads the nation in heroin use as well as the number of emergency room visits resulting from heroin overdose.

Historically the perception of a heroin user is someone who is bedraggled and poor with track marks covering his arms. However, as the article points out, there is a growing number of young, middle- and upper-class suburbanites using heroin. Regardless of who is struggling with this disease, the only way we are going to address this crisis is by making funding for prevention and treatment services a priority.

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Approximately 20 years ago I went to a meeting of the League of Women voters on crime. I went with the solution of ending the prohibition on drugs. The Peoria police chief's solution, among others', was to get tougher on crime.

About two years ago there was another meeting on crime at the Lariat Steakhouse with all of the powers that be. I had to interrupt the meeting in the end to even speak. We got the same get-tough-on-crime rhetoric, and look what we have.

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I'm glad to read that I'm in such good company with so many optimists.

I have my ups and downs just like everyone else. If I can't solve a problem myself I reach out to others and work together to find the best solutions.

I would support Senate Bill 1381. If a terminally ill person can benefit from marijuana, I don't see why not. It must be regulated and under the strict guidelines from a physician. I have personally experienced the death of family members from cancer and frankly, there comes a point where there isn't anything you wouldn't do to make a loved one as comfortable as possible.

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HUNTLEY - Of 20 tests given so far in Huntley High School's new drug testing program for extracurriculars, the results all have been negative.

A group of 10 students each involved in any extracurriculars - including sports, music groups and service clubs - were chosen at random for the months of April and May.

At $150 a test, District 158 has paid $3,000 total to Centegra Occupational Medicine in McHenry, according to district invoices.

District officials said that whether the results are a testament to the new program's success in deterring students from drugs or that the chosen students happened to not use drugs is just speculation.

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The Issue: Citizens defied drug traffickers. Our View: It is a good sign for the U.S.

Mexican citizens defied violent drug traffickers with a simple but powerful act: Voting.

No matter whom they voted for, Mexicans cast ballots on Sunday in favor of the rule of law, for honest government and for the peaceful resolution of disputes.

The people not on the ballot - the drug traffickers and their hired guns - tried to disrupt the voting with threats, violence and intimidation. In the days before the election, one candidate for governor was murdered and the government offered other candidates bulletproof vests.

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Freeport, Ill. - I tell you often, "I'm the eternal optimist. We can fix this thing." I regret to admit that at times it gets me down. Maybe just a minute or two, then I pick myself up, brush off my britches and try to solve the problem.

Thirty years in law enforcement and legalizing medical marijuana in Illinois just don't go together. I have seen too many good lives ruined. It needs just 60 votes to pass the house. I'm told that the supporters have more than 50.

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As many as 50 people turned out Thursday night to see if the five lesser-known candidates for governor had better ideas for solving the state?s budget crisis than the two major-party candidates.

At this first debate of gubernatorial candidates at Chicago State University ? skipped by Gov. Quinn and Republican nominee State Sen. Bill Brady ? most of the candidates called for cutting taxes and spending =2E

But Green Party candidate Rich Whitney ? who took 10 percent of the vote last time around ? called for $3 billion more spending to pay for free college for all Illinois students, funded in part by a tax on real estate speculation, hiking the state income tax to 5 percent and legalizing and taxing marijuana.

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Manteno police are holding back on enforcing the village's new local cannabis ordinance that offers the choice of paying a civil fine rather than facing criminal action for those caught with a small amount of marijuana or drug paraphernalia.

"After we passed this ordinance on June 7, several trustees -- Annette LaMore and Diane Dole -- and Police Chief Bernie Thompson, said that they had some concerns about allowing those charged only two hours to come up with a $200 fine," said Mayor Tim Nugent.

"At this time Manteno will not be enforcing this ordinance until it is discussed further at the Public Safety committee meeting," LaMore said. That committee will meet at 5:30 p.m. July 28 at the Village Board Room, 211 N. Main St.

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The violence in Chicago and the increasing deaths from opioids in the suburbs could both be prevented if lawmakers would learn the lesson of Prohibition.

Alcohol prohibition had the intention of making society better by outlawing the sale of an intoxicating substance, but it led to violence, corruption and products that were even more dangerous because they were unregulated and adulterated. The war on drugs is another failed prohibition.

The gangs that plague this city fight over drug-dealing territory, but if we took these substances out of the underground market and regulated them, as we do alcohol and tobacco, we would financially undermine the gangs.

Until lawmakers find the courage to regulate drugs in a legal market, cartels and gangs will control the production and distribution, and more people will become addicted.

Dan Linn, Lower West Side

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We don't wait for the times to change but rather we can change this very moment in time. There are some who drift and never do anything to bring about change. Others feel they must stand up for what they believe to be just and right, no matter the cost.

The winds of change concerning the legalization of medical cannabis here in Illinois have come. It is the humane thing to do for the patients of Illinois. Please give the citizens of our state the option to choose between the many dangerous and addictive drugs like morphine, OxyContin, Dilaudid ... or medical cannabis. Please call your state representative and ask them to vote yes on Senate Bill 1381.

Robert Day

Huntley

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