THE COST OF THE DRUG WAR

Regarding the letter to the editor of June 5, "Drug war a failure"
(Mike Plylar, page 7B):

Maybe the politicians are required to adhere to the party line of
prohibition because law enforcement, customs, the prison industrial
complex, the drug testing industry, the INS, the CIA, the FBI, the
Drug Enforcement Agency, the politicians themselves and the rest can't
live without the budget justification - not to mention the invisible
profits, bribery, corruption and forfeiture benefits that prohibition
affords them.

The drug war also promotes, justifies and perpetuates racist
enforcement policies and is diminishing many freedoms and liberties
that are supposed to be inalienable according to the Constitution and
the Bill of Rights.

Myron Von Hollingsworth, Fort Worth, via e-mail