APPALACHIAN VOICES: CIVIL RIGHTS IS REAL CASUALTY OF NATION'S WAR ON DRUGS

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution your right to be secure against
unreasonable search and seizure is dead, another victim of the "war on
drugs.'' So, too, are a 75-year-old retired Methodist minister in Boston, a
62-year-old man in Tennessee and a 63-year-old retiree in California.

They were innocent victims of botched drug raids where cops went to the
wrong house and failed to identify themselves, and the victims resisted,
believing they were being robbed, not arrested.

Countless other innocent citizens have been beaten, brutalized and
terrorized, and their homes ransacked by drug warriors too incompetent to
verify an address. The excuse? That this pursuit of drugs is more important
than the rights guaranteed to every American citizen by the Constitution.

The people of Arizona and California have elected to legalize marijuana for
medicinal use, yet the feds still prosecute, with no constitutional
authority to do so. Kiss the Ninth and Tenth Amendments goodbye.

An 80-year-old Kentucky woman was accused of dealing drugs in 1999, and her
home and money were seized. She never had her day in court, nor was her
property returned. Whether she was guilty or not, where was due process? And
when's the funeral for the Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments?

Is this so-called drug war a success? Is it worth the $75 billion price tag?
Prisoners are getting drugs, and any teen-ager knows where they can be
purchased. Our courts and prisons are clogged with non-violent drug
offenders, while rapists and murderers are released to make room.

The drug war encourages trafficking and makes drugs more available. The
illegality greatly magnifies the profit margin, creating powerful incentives
to lure others to use and to sell. And with that, we all become more
vulnerable to property crime and, perhaps, to violent crime.

Less than a century ago, there were no laws regulating drugs in the United
States. Marijuana, cocaine and morphine were sold in pharmacies. No
prescription was required. Did the nation go to wrack and ruin as a result?
Hardly. Were there drive-by shootings in the streets? Not at all.

It was the prohibition of alcohol that brought the first great crime wave to
the United States, with the same gang warfare and drive-by shootings so
common today. They disappeared when Prohibition ended. Today we repeat the
mistakes of our grandparents.

The only way to reduce the market for mind-altering drugs is to curb the
demand. This is best done by raising children without a desire to intoxicate
themselves, not by throwing away our precious liberties and creating a
police state. It's time to call a truce in the war on drugs and release its
principal prisoners ourselves and the Bill of Rights before it's too late.