DON'T FOLLOW US--WE'RE LOST

Sirs, I'm writing about: Police step up war on drugs" (7 Aug
08).

The American led war on drugs was doomed from the very beginning.
Regardless of the money put into the anti-drugs program, one cannot
nullify the basic supply and demand law of economics.

As long as people want to purchase recreational drugs and they are
willing to pay a substantial price for them, somebody will produce the
drugs and somebody else will get the drugs to the willing buyers.

This is guaranteed.

The war on drugs has transformed the United States into the most
incarcerated nation in history. With less than five percent of the
world's population, the U. S. has more than one fourth of the world's
prisoners. In other words, one out of every four prisoners in the
world in locked in an American prison, thanks primarily to America's
counter-productive war on certain (politically selected) drugs.

The United States government is in no position to give any other
nation advice on how to run an anti-drugs campaign.

No other nation has wasted more resources on fighting drugs and no
other nation has imprisoned more citizens for drug law violations than
the U. S., yet no other nation has been less successful in solving its
narcotics problem than the United States.

My advice to the rest of the world: Carefully observe the U. S.
narcotics policy and then do the opposite.

Don't follow us--we're lost.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz. U. S. A.