DRUG 'WAR' A WASTE OF RESOURCES

Jim Mathews' May 16 response to Roger Sargent's cogent and compelling
arguments against our current drug laws illustrate the role of bureaucratic
self-interest in our ruinous so-called "war on drugs."

This "war" is not merely unwinnable; it is undemocratic, divisive and
harmful to those of us who do not take drugs or even recommend their use.
The efforts of the federal and local governments to protect people from
themselves have eroded our civil liberties, increased violent crime (by
guaranteeing that the price of drugs remain artificially high) and have led
to the egregious misuse of our police forces. The documented cases of
agencies such as those in Louisiana that regularly confiscate private
property and harass innocent civilians on the pretext of "possible drug
possession," or the nebulously worded "intent to distribute" constitute a
small fraction of the abuse of power in the name of drug-law enforcement.

Personally, I think that the use of addictive substances is dumb. Any form
of dependency is a forfeiture of one's independence and free will.
Nevertheless, I think that our Constitution was never intended to deny
people the right to act stupidly when such acts do not endanger anyone else.

We need to take the money devoted to denying Americans control of their own
bodies and use it to attack legitimate enemies such as poverty, illness,
infant mortality, teen pregnancy and ignorance. Properly executed, such
legitimate "wars" would do more to lower drug addiction than all the
Draconian measures petty bureaucrats could possibly devise.

Hilel B. Salomon
Columbia