SQUANDERING FUNDS ON DRUG FIGHT

Sheriff Clarence Dupnik and County Attorney Barbara LaWall argue that more
taxpayer dollars are needed for law enforcement. Several months ago, I asked
the sheriff and county attorney: What portion of existing law-enforcement
resources is used to pursue, apprehend, prosecute, try, and jail people who
have murdered no one, assaulted no one, battered no one, raped no one,
robbed no one, burglarized no one, defrauded no one, embezzled from no one?

How many are people who are victims of government, mainly the misnamed "War
on Drugs"? (Nationally, estimates are about 40 percent.) Consider the
resources, now tragically misdirected and wasted, that could be used
to fight real crime, without a county sales tax. Although Sheriff Dupnik
responded to my letter, neither answered my question.

Despite these squandered funds, drug use continues unabated. So why do
politicians fight so desperately to continue this insane war? Could it be
the way the war gives them the excuse to continually expand their power
over our property, our bank accounts and our private lives?

Understandably many Arizonans fear that ending the Drug War would produce
hundreds of thousands of addicts, crack babies, children trying drugs, and
other evils. But that's what we have now.

Herbert C. Johnson