U.S. PROVED 'WAR ON DRUGS' IS INSANE

While addressing the United Nations General Assembly regarding illicit
drugs ("New 'war on drugs' has familiar ring," June 9), U.S. President Bill
Clinton mentioned in passing that "For the first time in history, more than
half the world's people live under governments of their own choosing. In
virtually every country, we see the expansion of expressions of individual
liberty."

It's a shame this can't be said for the U.S., where the wasteful, futile
and insane War on Drugs has:

- - made the U.S. the world's highest per capita jailer of its own citizens;

- - rendered the U.S. Constitution, once the envy of the world, not worth the
paper it is printed on because of the jihad against drugs;

- - made alcohol prohibition and Vietnam look like roaring successes by
comparison.

Of course it has become fashionable for politicians, when unable to justify
a policy on its merits, to make an appeal on behalf of "the children," and
that's exactly what Mr. Clinton did. Like most of Washington, he just can't
seem to understand that an unregulated black market for drugs does nothing
to protect youth, and that dealers are unlikely to ask kids for ID, as
merchants of legal (but deadly) drugs such as alcohol and tobacco do.

Instead, it's more of the same failed policies that have been used for the
better half of this century. More jails, more prisons, more families
ruined, more lives wasted. More freedoms taken away. And billions of
dollars wasted that could be funding programs to help people who have the
disease of addiction to get off drugs.

I care about future generations, but I certainly don't want my children to
live in a police state in the name of a "drug-free world." It's time to
rethink our global drug policies.

Timothy J. Meehan, Toronto

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)