CANDIDATES SILENT ON FAILURE OF DRUG WAR

The war on drugs continues to cause enormous harm and do precious little
good. Neither George W. Bush nor Al Gore has presented his plan for winning
the war.

If we had wasted as many dollars, destroyed as many lives and taken as bad
a licking in any other 30-year-old war, people would be demanding that our
politicians present their "exit strategies." How are the politicians going
to get us out of this mess?

Drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who embodied the drug war more than anyone,
is resigning effective Jan. 6, but not before launching his "Plan Colombia"
disaster.

There is still time to ask Bush and Gore how they will replace McCaffrey.
In what direction are they going to take the war on drugs? How do they
measure success? When will the mission be complete?

What impact does the war on drugs have on the prison building boom, the
increasing violence of police SWAT teams, our civil rights, racial
profiling in law enforcement, the spread of HIV, mandatory minimum
sentencing, civil asset forfeiture, intimidating foreign governments and
other issues?

These questions need to be debated publicly before we vote and before we
allow our government to continue to aimlessly flail away.

Paul Mozina, Milwaukee