PROHIBITION DOESN'T WORK

Whether or not Traffic accurately portrays U.S. drug policy continues to be
a point of contention. A few high-level government bureaucrats say nay, but
box office receipts and the high praise from the masses seems to suggest
otherwise.

The history of the "War on Drugs" speaks volumes to the futility of this
social experiment gone awry. The past is clear, but what does the future
hold? There's little question that "critical mass" rapidly approaches as
the sheer numbers reach staggering proportions and countries around the
world are beginning to refuse to support the misguided, delusional, pork
barrel excesses of this directionless disaster. Hardly a week passes that
the leader of another country doesn't suggest that some form of
legalization be in order. Most recently the presidents of Uruguay and
Mexico spoke the unspeakable.

With the cries for demand reduction at home and the current law enforcement
dilemma with racial profiling, the next predictable step is to carry the
war to the suburbs. The scales of justice must be balanced and the obvious
racism, inherent in this disastrous anomaly, can then be denied.
Middle-class white America is fertile ground for the drug war, but the
outcry will be deafening.

When the war truly comes home, it will end. As our ancestors discovered ...
prohibition doesn't work, pass it on.

MIKE PLYLAR, Kremmling, Colo.