THE DEA'S A FAILURE

(Re: "High On Hypocrisy," letters, Sept. 20.) Letter writer Cord
MacGuire's astute summation of the utter failure of the Drug
Enforcement Administration in Afghanistan is worthy of supplement
considering the DEA is actively working to oppose Amendment 44 on the
basis of being "experts on drugs."

The DEA is not just a failure internationally. Here in the United
States, save for persistent efforts to place obstacles between
state-legal medical marijuana patients and their medicine and other
programs aimed at impeding chronic pain patients from getting needed
prescription drugs, the DEA is likewise a failure. Few Americans who
want marijuana have trouble scoring. Nor do the users of other illicit
drugs, despite 35-plus years of ever-escalating drug war policies
headed by the DEA.

Coloradans should be less concerned about the value of donating
dollars to the in-state DEA drive and more questioning how long all
Americans are going to continue to fund a federal agency that has
proven itself utterly incapable of fulfilling its primary mission-that
of significantly reducing either demand or supply for illicit drugs.

Stephen Heath

Clearwater, Fla.