WASTED DAYS & NIGHTS

At last, a voice of sanity. Dan Gardner's brilliantly written and deeply
researched article ["The failed war on drugs," Part 1 of a six-part series,
Jan. 7] affirms what many sensible people think: Drug use is not the
problem--prohibition is.

The most telling aspects of the story were Gardner's detailing of U.S. drug
czar Barry McCaffrey's blatant lies about the results of decriminalizing
some drugs in Holland, and the U.S. suppression of a World Health
Organization report on cocaine use that found that facts do not support
American policy. When our government must lie about a NATO ally and
suppress the results of years of research in order to maintain a political
position, we should be outraged at this hypocrisy.

When it comes to drugs, it appears that we live in an Orwellian state,
where the facts must be twisted to fit the politics. Perhaps Gardner's
article will open some eyes, and enable people to see that America's drug
policy is based on myths, not reality, and that we should change that
policy to fit the facts.

Bill Savage, Rogers Park