Walter Cronkite said it; Stanley Marcus said it; William F. Buckley
said it; "Dear Abby" advised it in her column; even police chiefs and
judges have advocated it: the L-word -- or, to speak plainly,
legalization. It is something you won't hear any politician talking
about, but you see it again and again in the letters to the editor.

The drum roll will continue, and you can be sure that it will increase
in strength into the future.

The drug war, this strange aberration of America that has come to mean
world supremacy for the America prison system, must end. The drug war,
which has built a world black market and brings a reputed $400 billion
per year into the coffers of drug lords and gang armies, must end. The
drug war, which kills innocent teen-agers like Ezequiel Hernandez in
the name of border security, must end.

The evidence has been in for a long time that the war is far worse
than what it supposedly came to eradicate. Reasonable people know that
war is not good domestic policy.

Larry Nickerson
Fort Worth