Portugal's decriminalization of drugs reduced the number of heroin users from 100,000 to 25,000. Its drug mortality rate became the lowest in Western Europe. What's badly needed is to look at the real reason for criminalizing drugs. The first anti-cocaine laws in the early 1900s were aimed at black men in the South. The first anti-marijuana laws in the early 20th century targeted Mexican migrants and Mexican-Americans. The "war on drugs" was coined by President Richard Nixon. A top Nixon aide, John Ehrlichman, later admitted that it was aimed at Mr. Nixon's two major enemies, the antiwar left and black people: Criminalization meant that "we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." The war on drugs had little or nothing to do with health or safety. It was about political persecution. Roger Carasso Santa Fe, N.M. [end]
Re "Mexico army no match for drug cartels," Dec. 30 One tell-tale sign that your country is ruled by a combination of opportunists, hypocrites and dogmatists is if it wages a "war on drugs." Mexico's rulers, at the urging of our rulers, are waging that war. They have sent in the army to defeat the drug cartels. The police have already lost the war, and it's now the army's to lose. The United States may next turn to the Mexican navy to step in so it can have a turn at losing the war. [continues 56 words]
