STEPS BEING TAKEN TO RIGHT THE FAILED WAR ON DRUGS

As I sat over my coffee this morning, on this last Thanksgiving of the
millennium, it occurred to me that I have a special reason to give thanks
this year. This year for the first time I see many of my fellow citizens
becoming aware of a wrong within our great country that must be righted,
and I see them beginning to take steps to right this wrong.

This wrong of which I speak has caused untold pain and suffering within
families; it has left children without parents, parents without children,
brothers without sisters and sisters without brothers.

This wrong has disproportionately harmed our poor and minorities and has
kept the sickest of our citizens from the medicine they need to sustain a
reasonable quality of life. It has diminished our cherished freedom and cut
the heart from our Bill of Rights. This wrong has required our government
to lie to us, has corrupted our law enforcement agencies, has perverted our
system of justice and has lowered our respect for the law.

The wrong which has caused this tremendous damage is our ill-conceived and
failed war on drugs. On this day of thankfulness, I would like to give
thanks to you, the editors who have publicized this wrong through articles,
columns, letters and opinion pieces. I would like to thank those
politicians who have had the courage and honesty to speak out against this
war. I would like to thank my fellow citizens who have seen the damage
cause by this war and said enough. Most of all, I would like to thank God
for giving us the intelligence, compassion, wisdom and courage to right
this wrong.

LEROY CASTERLINE Fort Collins