ON DRUG WAR AND POLICE STATE

"State turns to helicopters and hot lines to uncover marijuana" (Page A-9,
Oct. 8) should have read "Police state turns to helicopters and hot lines
to uncover marijuana."

The KGB, the East German Stasi, and the Nazis would have been very pleased
with the police tactics that have become commonplace in the United States.
Police kicking in doors and killing innocent people, drug sniffing dogs at
random road blocks, urine tests for employment: Obviously our
Constitutional liberties must be abandoned for the pipe dream of the "war
on drugs."

The politicians and the police have been riding the drug war gravy train
for too long; it's time for the public to derail it.

Edward Pocengal, Darien, Conn., Oct. 8