TIME TO JUST SAY 'NO'

Every day I read the paper. I read about how the New York police, in their
zealous pursuit of drugs, accidentally raided the wrong house and
terrorized an innocent citizen. I read about how the Texas police, without
any probable cause, forced a trucker to unload his frozen broccoli without
finding any drugs.

In my local area, I read about 30- and 40-year sentences for possession of
drugs, and then I read how our new prisons are filling up. Today I read
that the federal government wants more money to interfere in Colombia and
how the Bolivians are rioting because they want the United States to stop
the coca eradication program, and I am wondering when this insanity is going
to stop.

We are meddling in foreign affairs and literally risking another Vietnam. We
are rapidly losing constitutional rights. Maybe it's time, here in Texas,
to just say "no" to the war on drugs. We could sell low-dose versions of
all the illegal drugs at state-run stores and make enough money to
finance real treatment options. Then we could take the money we are wasting
on drug law enforcement and finance scholarships for our kids. Just think,
if the whole country did that, we might even be able to bail out Social
Security.

CAROL J. WALLACE