DRUG WAR: COSTLY WITH NO BENEFITS

I'm writing about Travis C. Ash's outstanding op-ed: "Do the benefits
of drug war outweigh the costs?" (berkeleydailyplanet.com, Oct. 17).
The obvious answer to this question is: No.

So why does our obviously counterproductive war on drugs continue?
Why do apparently intelligent people want to arrest and jail other
people who use or sell easy-to grow weeds and other chemicals that
harm nobody except the willing users themselves?

Perhaps to understand the position of our drug war cheerleaders we
should study the history of the United States.

Alcohol prohibition. The notorious gangster Al Capone made most of
his illegal money from alcohol prohibition. Capone often bragged that
he "owned" the city of Chicago. Obviously, he didn't own all of the
city of Chicago; however, he had most or all of the politicians and
police who ran the city on his payroll. Al Capone was a successful
businessman and its not unreasonable to suspect that the drug cartels
of today are following his business model.

Its also not unreasonable to suspect that the drug cartels may have
many high-level politicians and police officials on their payroll.
Obviously, the type of politicians the drug cartels would have on
their payroll are those who advocate the continuation of the status
quo of drug prohibition, which is making the drug cartels so
fabulously wealthy. I'm not saying that any specific so-called "drug
warrior" is on the payroll of the drug cartels--just a little
suspicious. I'm just a little suspicious of the motives of all of the
drug war cheerleaders.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, AZ