Drug war

QUASI-MILITARY CRUSADE MAKES CRIME WHERE THERE IS NO CRIME

Rep. Henry Hyde and the other supporters of the recent House
asset-forfeiture reform bill deserve our thanks. It is heartening to see
conservatives like Hyde and Rep. Bob Barr acknowledge flaws in our
get-tough-at-any-cost anti-drug policies.

Like Prohibition, the government's previous quasi-military crusade against
private behavior, the drug war "makes a crime of things that are not
crimes" (to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln), thereby demonizing innocent
people, discouraging respect for the law in general and, incidentally,
spawning an untaxed, unregulated, extremely violent, hugely profitable
international drug-supply industry.

Prohibition died when even its champions realized it was far more
corrupting, wasteful and destructive than alcohol use had ever been.
Existing asset-forfeiture law, a clear corruption of the Fourth Amendment,
has been but one corrosive consequence of the misguided "war on drugs."

We should encourage our senators to follow the House's lead in reforming
it. Perhaps, once one tactic in the drug war has been reevaluated,
legislators will consider a thoughtful reassessment of our entire national
drug policy.

Lucy Richert, Seattle