FAILING DRUG WAR

To the editor:

Regarding your thoughtful Feb. 27 editorial: The financial incentives
created by civil asset forfeiture laws create a dangerous precedent.
Police can confiscate cars, cash and homes without bothering to charge
owners with a crime. Vague allegations of drug trafficking don't
justify turning protectors of the peace into financial predators. The
drug war threatens the integrity of a country founded on the concept
of limited government.

Police searches on public transit, drug-sniffing dogs in schools and
random drug testing have led to a loss of civil liberties, while
failing miserably at preventing drug use. A majority of European Union
countries have decriminalized marijuana. Despite marijuana
prohibition, and perhaps because of forbidden-fruit appeal, lifetime
use of marijuana is higher in the United States than any European country.

The United States now has the highest incarceration rate in the world,
in large part because of the war on some drugs. This is big government
at its worst.

It's not possible to wage a moralistic war against consensual vices
unless privacy is completely eliminated, along with the Constitution.
America can be a free country or a "drug-free" country, but not both.

Robert Sharpe,

Washington, D.C.

The writer is a policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy