ONE TOKE OVER THE LINE

Dan Gardner's report is perhaps one of the most important articles to grace
the front page of a major metropolitan newspaper in years. Hopefully, this
article, the release of the Hollywood movie "Traffic" and the outcry of
such sober voices as Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico will herald an age in
American politics when this topic can be discussed openly, free of the
superficial stigma that has been attached for too long.

No other problem facing the nation today is as important as the so-called
war on drugs. No other problem is as vilified as the so-called war on
drugs. Clearly, our nation's drug policies are an enormous, and enormously
expensive, failure. It's money thrown into a black hole, for no positive
results have ever come from it.

However, Gardner fails to address the other, more human costs of this
American folly. The drug war has been the direct cause of the whittling
away of many civil liberties. Today, a suspected drug dealer--even a
suspected petty user--is considered guilty until proven innocent.
Additionally, the drug war tends to attack minorities far out of proportion
to their use of a particular drug. It's time for America to wake up to the
futility of its drug program.

Rich Silverman, Near North Side