PRESS CENSORSHIP

Editor: The foreign press reports on an almost daily basis that
U.S.-imposed drug policy is becoming increasingly isolated as leaders in
Europe, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, much of the Caribbean, and
Canada begin to renounce this political catastrophe. Yet we hear little of
this from our nation's media.

The president of Mexico has stated -concerning legalization-that "Humanity
someday will see that it is best." He has appointed high- level cabinet
officials who support his position; however, this is largely unreported by
U.S. news sources.

Jorge Batlle, president of Uruguay, became the first Latin American head of
state to call for legalization of drugs. He made this request in front of a
large number of U.S. correspondents last autumn at a Latin American
presidents' summit in Panama. Batlle repeated his call at the December 1
inauguration of Mexican president Vicente Fox. Apparently, no reporter
besides a Spanish wire service had the courage to report Batlle's words.
Where, might I ask, was the American press? They were there, but apparently
left their professional credibility at home.

Canada? For all intents and purposes, we lost their support long ago....

We can hardly buy support anywhere in the world for American drug
policy....What have they seen that somehow we've missed here in the land of
the free? ....[The] realization that we've been had will come only after
we've wasted countless lives and futures, incarcerated more people than any
other country in the free world, allowed government agents to kill innocent
people in their own homes...employed Draconian mandatory minimum drug
sentences, gone to war on foreign soil, damned near destroyed our legacy as
a free people, and wasted...taxpayers' assets on what is nothing more than
a hysterical witch-hunt fun amok.

Why?

Just report it. Most Americans are bound to conclude that this pork- barrel
pariah called drug prohibition has never, and will never work....America's
war on drugs has evolved into a civil war waged on our own people....

The truth...can no longer be hidden behind the children or censored by the
U.S. news media, thanks to the interconnectedness of our modern world....

Mike Plylar
Mr. Plylar writes from Kremmling, CO.