As I opened my June 28 Bee, the Vision section dropped out, and to my
surprise there was a column which stated that the "war on drugs is now
causing more harm than drug abuse itself." Could it be that after
years of failure at every step, people are finally beginning to
realize the truth of that statement?

Sadly, this article runs under the headline "Surrender," which is
blatantly wrong. Any military person will tell you that in a war when
a strategy or tactic makes the enemy stronger, better equipped and
more able to resist, that it is time to change that strategy or
tactic. This is not "surrender"; this is just plain smart.

It is time to decriminalize all currently illegal drugs, empty our
prisons of nonviolent drug offenders and let our police get back to
the basics of law enforcement. As scary as that might seem, when one
considers the years of terror perpetuated by drug prohibition, the
billions of wasted public funds and the millions of lives ruined by
enforcement of a failed policy, there is no other reasonable course of
action.

Larry Johnson
Clovis