'DESPERATE EXCESSES'

Thank you for your unequivocal condemnation of the
"Anti-methamphetamine Proliferation Act" (editorial, "Basic freedoms:
The next victim of the war on drugs," May 31, page 6B). This
abomination is but the latest of a long list of assaults on both
common sense and our constitutional freedoms. It's not inaccurate to
say that in the nearly three decades since Nixon declared "war" on
drugs, we have become progressively less free and secure - even as our
streets are ever more inundated with the dangerous products of a
thriving criminal industry. The role of the press in this unhappy
affair has not always been commendable; far too often our newspapers
have either uncritically repeated the downright nonsense of drug war
advocates or failed to speak out against the desperate excesses of
their failing policy. Thanks, again. Better late than never.

Tom O'Connell, San Mateo, Calif., via TRNonline