LET'S STOP DRUG WAR

Another Chicago police officer has been charged with dealing drugs--this
time Ecstasy ["Cop faces charge in Ecstasy ring," news story, Aug. 30].
This development calls for action. Perhaps Chicago police officers should
be compelled to attend D.A.R.E. classes, or maybe this officer went bad--if
he did--because he did attend, or maybe he taught D.A.R.E. classes.

Perhaps drug education is not the answer to anti-drug prayers. Maybe
prevention is the answer. However, since Ecstasy is a lab-made intoxicant,
we cannot spray the coca and poppy fields of Colombia in hopes of fighting
Ecstasy. Maybe to help police get a grip, we should spray them with the
benign concoction also known as Roundup Ultra, the weed killer that America
sprays on Colombians and their growing fields.

Unhappy with those worn drug war choices? Last choice: Lock up police
officers who somehow missed the anti-drug message of the drug war.
Supposedly, the charged Chicago officer distributed 1,000 pills of Ecstasy
to close friends and neighbors. Under Illinois' new down-with-Ecstasy law,
the distribution of 15 pills is a Class X (big-trouble) crime punishable by
six to 30 years behind bars.

Computing the minimum penalty for each 15-pill infraction (1,000 pills
divided by 15 pills = 66.67 times), the suspected officer, on conviction,
could serve 400 to 2,000 years. At $30,000 per incarceration year, the
drug-failing of one Chicago police officer could set Illinois taxpayers
back $12 million to $60 million.

That's enough to make any sober taxpayer just say no to the foolhardy drug
war. I'm not a big death penalty fan, but let's hope the insane drug war
overdoses and croaks.

James E. Gierach
Oak Lawn