A LOSING WAR

To the editor:

It has been said with regard to cancer that there is no profit in a
cure. I strongly believe that the same principle applies to the drug
war.

I hope it won't be much longer before the truth of the drug war
becomes as obvious to the public at large and the media (including
your publication) as it has to me. There is no profit in an end to the
drug war. In short, the alternative to prohibition -- legalization --
will not produce the profits (visible and invisible) that the drug war
does for its proponents.

The drug war also promotes, justifies and perpetuates racist
enforcement policies and is diminishing many freedoms and liberties
that are supposed to be guaranteed by the Constitution.

Prohibition can never succeed. In more than 100 years, prohibition has
never even come close to succeeding.

Our law enforcement institutions and even our very economies are now
addicted -- financially -- to the war on drugs. Wake up, world -- this
is a fiscal addiction.

To those who disagree with reform, consider the following: I guarantee
you that all the gun-toting, murderous, ultraviolent "drug kingpins"
who sell to and addict our children in order to generate huge,
tax-free amounts of bribe money and profits are on your side. They not
only appreciate but also thrive and depend on your point of view for
their very existence!

MARK VAN HONTS
Fort Worth