THOUGHTS ON TERROR

From a speech by Arnold Trebach, then-president of the U.S.-based Drug
Policy Foundation, to a criminology conference in Jerusalem in 1996:

What is not generally recognized is that the skills and personnel most
successful in enforcing prohibition are also the most effective in curbing
terrorism.

The greatest successes of the American Drug Enforcement Administration have
come from good intelligence, long-range planning and prediction, and
undercover work. These are the same skills that other agents have used to
penetrate terror networks.

It goes without saying that society is at greater risk from bombs than drugs.

All of us would be infinitely safer if the courageous efforts of anti-drug
agents in the U.S., Israel and other countries were focused on terrorists
aimed at blowing up airliners and skyscrapers than at drug traffickers
seeking to sell the passengers and office dwellers cocaine and marijuana.