DISSING THE DRUG WAR

Former Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Daniel J.
Addario should study some history before declaring the war on drugs
a success ("Dissing the DEA," Letters, July 25 and PghTrib.com).

Before drug prohibition began in 1914, there were no drug gangs, no
criminal drug cartels and no such thing as "drug crime."

When addicts could buy all of the heroin, morphine, cocaine and
anything else they wanted cheaply and legally, no one was robbing,
whoring and murdering to get their drugs. When drugs were legal,
addicts worked regular jobs, raised decent families and were
indistinguishable from teetotalers.

The "junkie" is a creation of drug crusaders like Addario who
falsely claim to be "saving people from themselves."

Addario wickedly claims that the "DEA doesn't waste valuable time
arresting pot smokers and perpetrators of victimless crimes," but
cannot explain the DEA raids currently being done on medical
marijuana centers in California.

Every time there is any attempt to end marijuana prohibition at the
state level, a DEA agent shows up telling reefer madness tales to
stop any change. Addario ignores more than 800,000 marijuana arrests
every year because of state and federal pot laws the DEA encouraged.

If Addario bothers to do some fact-checking, he will find that
illegal drugs are now purer, cheaper and more widely available than
when the DEA began.

Addario's drug crusade has filled American prisons with drug users
without reducing drug use one iota.

One last point: Timothy Leary was never convicted of any LSD offenses.

Ralph Givens

Daly City, Calif.