DRUG WAR & MEDIA

Editor:

The foreign press reports, on almost a 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 policy 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," and he has appointed
high-level cabinet officials who support his position, but it's
largely unreported by U.S. news sources.

President Fox is not alone south of the border, by any
means.

...The president of Uruguay, Jorge Batlle, became the first Latin
American head of state to call for legalizing drugs, [and he did so]
in front of a large number of U.S. correspondents last autumn at a
Latin American presidentsí summit in Panama. Again, in Mexico City, in
front of a huge gathering of U.S. news reporters at the December 1
inauguration of Mexican president Vicente Fox, Batlle spoke this
'heresy' and apparently no reporter besides a Spanish wire service had
the audacity to report it. Where, might I ask, was the American press?

...Just report it, our people will decide and, much like our
ancestors, most Americans are bound to conclude that this pork-barrel
pariah called drug prohibition, has never, can never, and will never
work....Americaís "War On Drugs" has evolved into a civil war waged on
our own people, pure and simple.

Mike Plylar
Mr. Plylar writes from Kremmling, CO.