NO NEED FOR WAR EFFORT

"What did you do in the war, Daddy?" That question has always had a
bracing effect. Those of age and suitability for service can answer
well - who either patriotically placed themselves at risk for a war
effort or conscientiously mustered the lonely courage it took to be
counted in protest.

There has been an unrelenting war going on for 28 years. Every adult
is to be counted - and asked this question. It's finally beginning to
dawn on significant numbers of people that they've long been
complicit - if only through AWOL silence - in what history will
surely decry as an extension of the dark ages: our ruinous "war on
drugs."

While still at zero deaths from ingestion, we're approaching an
incredible half-million arrests a year for simple, nonaggravated
possession of marijuana. (Compare that with 300,000 deaths a year
from tobacco and zero arrests for adult use.) Because of this war,
the street prices of illicit drugs run up to 50 times what they'd
normally cost to produce and sell - which creates more than $100
billion a year in theft and extortion.

The next four years are looking to be a mindless continuation of this
war, but please don't blame the small percentage who conscientiously
voted for honest third-party candidates such as Ralph Nader. Al
Gore's White House Web site bragged how he and President Clinton had
vastly expanded the war with marijuana-related arrests increasing
from about 500,000 a year to more than 700,000: more arrests than for
all other categories (murder, theft, etc.) combined. Who will end
this cruel madness? Why can't the government just leave people alone
to their choice of pleasures?

CRAIG DANIELS