history

This is a response to the editorial by Mr. Joseph B. Filko on Aug. 16.
Mr. Filko, you suggest "... that the demonstrators have a very limited
grasp of the rational and historic origins of human and civil rights."
I claim that in fact the demonstrators have an excellent understanding
of the disturbing history of drug prohibition and the dismal reality
of the war on drugs.

Laws against marijuana, as well as other drugs, were enacted primarily
to repress minority groups. In a hearing before Congress in 1937, the
Bureau of Narcotics Commissioner Harry J. Anslinger argued that
marijuana needed to be prohibited because of its supposed violent
"effect on the degenerate races."

Congress agreed over the protests of the American Medical Association,
which presented evidence that marijuana was not a threat to public
health. And thus the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 became law, passed as a
tax law because they understood what the demonstrators are trying to
tell you -- that outright prohibition is an infringement of personal
liberties guaranteed by the Constitu-tion.

Founded in such ignorance and bigotry as this, it is no wonder that
the War on Drugs has reaped such devastation. The facts are appalling:

* Drug addicts are treated as criminals instead of
patients;

* Prisons are crowded beyond capacity;

* Inner cities have become war zones;

* And the government has continued to repress badly needed research
regarding the medical merits of marijuana

Mr. Filko said to survive we need "... to perceive reality accurately"
and to respond to it rationally.

I agree. We must see the War on Drugs for what it is -- a
fundamentally flawed policy causing much more harm than good -- and
work for a better solution.

That is what these demonstrators are doing and I thank them for their
efforts.

Cindy Campbell
West Haven, Conn.