The Useless War Against Drugs

It was astonishing and mildly heartening to read John J. Dilulio Jr.'s "Two
Million -Prisoners Are Enough" (editorial page, March 12). Astonishing,
because it seems possible that the Journal's editorial board (which has in
the past shown its approval of Mr. Dilulio's research) is beginning to see
the light at the end of the drug war tunnel-namely, that after three decades
and hundreds of billions of dollars, the war is not only lost, but, as
Milton Friedman says, immoral; and that the "benefits" to society as a whole
and, families in particular for throwing non-violent drug offenders into
jail don't benefit anyone except lawyers and DEA employees, and are
infinitely more harmful than the effects of, say, smoking a joint.

Yes, get rid of mandatory-minimum sentences and release drug-only offenders;
but also decriminalize the taking of drugs, and when there are problems of
abuse, let families, churches, support groups and the medical community
attend to that issue.

STEVEN R. HURLBERT Atlanta