Re: Not A Drug Free Zone, Feb. 23.

One need only look to the U.S. to see what "zero tolerance" for drugs
really means. The U.S. prison population recently reached two million,
an eightfold increase in 20 years. With 700 out of 100,000 people in
prison compared with 120 in Canada and 60 in most of Europe there is
an evil machine gaining strength in the U.S. Most are in for drug
crimes. A "prison industrial complex" built on the highest
imprisonment rate in the world in history prevails, a "Dante's
Inferno" where all hope is lost. Minorities are the biggest victims
and primary occupants of the drug war gulags.

If this is the model the U.S. (land of the free?) and the UN narcotics
control board want us to emulate, perhaps it is worth considering that
we are right and they are wrong.

Chuck Beyer,
Victoria.