NOT ALL POLICE ARE FOR WAR ON DRUGS

As a retired narcotics officer, I was concerned by the misdirection of
the title to your Feb. 8 article, "Police blame drugs for many crimes."

I was a detective lieutenant with a 26-year career in the New Jersey
State Police - 14 as an undercover narcotics officer.

The 10,000 cops, judges, prosecutors, prison wardens and others who
belong to Law Enforcement Against Prohibition know it is not drugs
that cause crime. It is drug prohibition.

Al Capone was not high on alcohol when he ordered the St. Valentine's
Day Massacre. The cartel leaders were not high on illicit drugs when
they ordered the deaths of thousands of police, solders and innocent
bystanders along the Mexican border over the last year. That is just
the way business is conducted when the substance you distribute is
illegal.

During the four decades of the war on drugs, we have already expended
well over a trillion dollars, and what do we have to show for it?
Thirty-nine million arrests of nonviolent drug users. While violence
escalates, drugs have become cheaper but more potent, and far easier
for our children to access.

It doesn't have to be this way. Legalized regulation of drugs will
reduce the incidence of death, disease, crime, and addiction.

According to a recent Harvard University study by economist Jeffrey
Miron, ending drug prohibition would boost America's economy by $76.8
billion dollars a year. See www.WeCan DoItAgain.org for the report.

Jack A. Cole

Medford, Mass.