SHADOW CONVENTIONS HIGHLIGHT DRUG-WAR FAILURE

Regarding your July 27 article "Shadow conventions may shift klieg-lights
from GOP": Those of us who have been paying attention to the societal harm
the war on drugs causes are looking forward to the exposure the shadow
conventions will provide. Zero-tolerance rhetoric drives addiction
underground and compounds the problem.

Alcoholics would not seek treatment if confessing to their addiction were
tantamount to confessing to criminal activity. The "land of the free" now
has the highest incarceration rate in the world thanks to America's policy
of locking up nonviolent drug offenders. Yet drugs are cheaper and purer
than ever; in fact, children have an easier time purchasing illegal drugs
than beer. Unlike liquor retailers, drug dealers don't ID for age. The drug
war is a colossal failure by any measure. Those who claim otherwise either
do so out of ignorance or a vested interest in perpetuating the status quo.

Robert Sharpe, Washington