FAILED STRATEGY

Adjunct TU law professor Brian Johnson (Letters, May 17) labeled
columnist Sheryl McCarthy's premise that drug abusers hurt only
themselves and their loved ones ("Hooked," May 6) "egregiously false."
These abusers, Johnson reasons, support a violent and abusive industry
and are the cause of the violence and carnage of the drug trade.

The drug war is a failed strategy, adding to the disease and misery of
many of our citizens and seriously decreasing personal liberties and
freedoms for us all. It is a war of oppression against particular
individuals because of their personal and private behavior. This
unregulated and out-of-control marketplace was created by and is a
direct result of prohibition. Our addiction to the war on drugs has
become part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Violence begets violence. Our society's Draconian laws have generated
the violence of the illegal market. It is a far stretch by Professor
Johnson to blame those who are the "prey to substance abuse." That
blame lies squarely on society's obsession with prohibition. How far
are we prepared to stray from the Bill of Rights in the name of
warring on drugs?

Michael Pearson, Guthrie