PAST TIME TO END FAILED WAR ON DRUGS

As a retired police detective and student of history, I heartily agree
with Cynthia Tucker's assessment of the war on drugs ("When will we
end the failed drug war?" Opinion * Commentary, Dec. 31). No one can
state one positive outcome after the expenditure of, by my group's
estimate, more than $1 trillion in tax money and the arrests of 38
million Americans, mostly citizens of color, in the drug war over the
last 30-plus years.

We have not and never will make a dent in the supply, purity or price
of illegal drugs.

Perhaps one day we will become as wise as our grandparents and end our
modern-day drug prohibition.

Howard J. Wooldridge

Frederick

The writer is a retired police officer and an education specialist
for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.