APPROACH TO PROBLEM IS DEEPLY FLAWED

The "drug war," which has been one of U.S. Rep. Joe Barton's "highest
priorities since coming to Congress," is a counterproductive fraud.

The "drug war" causes artificially profitable drugs to be pushed into our
communities and at our children. Consider that the drug use rate in all of
Holland is half of ours. The rate of hard drug use among Dutch young people
is one-third of ours.

The advanced nations of the western world are abandoning the "drug war" and
legalizing the growing and use marijuana.

In stark contrast, major U.S. banks, the prison industry and it's servant,
the U.S. Criminal, Justice System, the $1 billion-a-year and growing "drug
testing" industry, the oil companies, the lumber industries, the
pharmaceutical corporations, organized crime, U.S. military hardware
suppliers and our allies in Latin America (the narco-dictatorships, like
Columbia) all continue to profit handsomely from the "drug war."

The "drug war" is not about drugs.American's former constitutional rights
are being stripped from them, all in the name of this war. The
Feinstein/Hatch Amendment, which Congress is about to pass, will
effectively destroy the First Amendment to the Constitution. The Fourth
Amendment, no longer exists, in practice.

Thanks to the "drug war," our police have been corrupted. Across the
country, departments now function like mercenary, paramilitary armies. Our
mushrooming, prison system routinely fosters the kinds of gross, human
rights atrocities that are familiar to any third-world, police-state
dictatorship.

Lastly, "drug testing" does nothing to help our citizens and communities.
It merely encourages illegal drug users to switch from marijuana, (the only
"drug" "drug testing" can effectively trace), to hard drugs like heroin,
which leave the body soon after ingestion.

Drug testing does nothing to help Americans fight back against the endless
procession of addiction, crimes and deaths that accompany the legal use of
alcohol. Drug testing is nothing more than corporate profiteering.

What a shame that Mr. Barton is running unopposed for re-election in November.

Lee Eisenstein, president
Lionel Standish Records
Watsonville,Calif.