DRUG WARS

Duncan Campbell's Op-Ed Was right on target. Drug czar John Walter's
attempts to link the war on drugs to the war on terror began almost
immediately after September 11. His opportunistic drug-terror ad campaign
first premiered amidst beer commercials during the Super Bowl.

International terrorists have unfortunately caught on to something gangster
Al Capone learned in the 1920s during alcohol prohibition. There are
enormous profits to be made on the black market.

With drug-war budgets at risk during a time of shifting national
priorities, drug warriors are cynically using drug prohibition's collateral
damage to justify more of the same.

The illicit drug of choice in America is domestically grown marijuana, not
Colombian cocaine or Afghan heroin. Taxing and regulating marijuana would
render the drug war obsolete.

As long as marijuana remains illegal and distributed by organized crime,
consumers will continue to come into contact with drugs like cocaine and
heroin.

Naturally, government bureaucrats whose jobs depend on never-ending drug
war prefer to blame the plant itself for the alleged "gateway" to hard drugs.

Either the government doesn't believe its own propaganda or federal
marijuana laws are more important than protecting the country from
terrorism. By conducting paramilitary raids on California's voter-approved
medical-marijuana suppliers, the very same federal government that claims
illicit drug use funds terrorism is forcing cancer and AIDS patients into
the hand of street dealers.

Robert Sharpe

Program Officer, Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, D.C