THE DRUG WAR'S ATTACK ON FREEDOM

Mackenzie Phillips, daughter of the founder of the Mamas and Papas
pop group and a former star in the television sitcom "One Day at a
Time," was arrested last week and charged with possession of
narcotics. The arrest took place while Phillips was going through
the security screening at Los Angeles International Airport.

There are two things wrong with this picture.

First, aren't those airport security checkpoints intended to stop
terrorists and hijackers, not drug addicts? Why should airport
gendarmes have the authority to take people into custody for
possession of items that are unrelated to terrorism or hijacking?

More fundamentally, why should the government have the authority to
punish any person for possession of drugs? Of course, that is the
central moral challenge to the drug war itself.

Why shouldn't a person be free to possess or ingest any substance, no
matter how harmful? Isn't that a necessary part of the concept of
individual freedom. If the government can send an adult to his room
for ingesting non-approved substances, how can people in that society
honestly be considered free?

Why shouldn't the state simply leave people like Mackenzie Phillips
alone? Sure, the woman seems to have a drug problem. According to the
Associated Press, back in 1982 she lost her job at "One Day at a
Time" because of drug-related charges. But isn't that her business?
What business does the state have punishing her for a drug addiction?

Why not just punish those people who violate the rights of others and
leave everyone else alone? Isn't that what we do with people who
ingest alcohol?

Meanwhile, the bodies of 24 men were recently found outside Mexico
City, victims of the latest battles between rival drug gangs. In
other parts of Mexico, 17 other people were killed last week, some of
whom had been decapitated. According to the Reforma newspaper, 3,148
people have been killed in drug-related violence just this year.

Arrests of drug addicts, gang wars, and murders and executions. Just
another week in the life of the 30-year-old war on drugs. With no end in sight.

Isn't it time to bring all this abuse, death, and destruction to a
stop? Isn't it time to simply repeal the drug war?