MUZZLED MARIJUANA ACTIVIST A CASUALITY OF UNREALISTIC DRUG WAR

It has been said with regard to cancer that there is no profit in a cure.
The same principle applies here: There is no profit in an end to the drug
war. The alternative to prohibition -- legalization -- will not produce the
profits that the drug war does for its proponents.

The drug war and its proponents do not and have never listed victory as an
objective.

Leaders' boasts of "Drug free by the year 2005" or "2007" etc. are
laughable. The same was boasted by past presidents and politicians about
1980, 1985 and 1990 etc. ad nauseum. The true (and hidden) objective is that
it is imperative that the drug war never be won. In that way it perpetuates
itself and all the revenue it produces.

Maybe the politicians are required to adhere to the party line of
prohibition because law enforcement, customs, the prison industrial complex,
the INS, the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, the politicians themselves et al can't
live without the budget justification, not to mention the invisible profits,
bribery, corruption and forfeiture benefits that prohibition affords them.

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 and Bill of Rights.

Prohibition can never succeed. Our law enforcement institutions and
economies are now addicted -- financially -- to the war on drugs. Wake up
world -- this is a fiscal addiction.

MYRON VON HOLLINGSWORTH Fort Worth, Texas