BRAVO, DRUG MYTHS OP-ED

To the editor:

By using the drug news index on the MAPINC (Media Awareness Project
Inc.) Web site, I keep up on how drug policy reform issues are covered
in the media (or not) and by whom.

Bravo to Arthur Cannon (March 9, "Two myths of the drug war") and thanks
to The Times Record for publishing the sensible albeit presently
underreported viewpoint.

Maybe the corrupt politicians and media are required to adhere to the
party line of prohibition because law enforcement, customs, the prison
and military industrial complex, the drug-testing industry, the "drug
treatment" industry, the INS, the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, the politicians
themselves, et al., can't live without the budget justification, not to
mention the invisible profits, bribery, corruption and forfeiture
benefits that prohibition affords them.

The drug war also promotes, justifies and perpetuates racist enforcement
policies and is diminishing many freedoms and liberties that are
supposed to be inalienable according to the constitution and bill of
rights.

Myron Von Hollingsworth, Forth Worth, Texas