TIME TO SURRENDER

Recent stories covering the violence on the Mexican border and our
nation's swollen prison population inexplicably omit that our failed
prohibition laws are directly responsible for both conditions. The
prohibition of alcohol was repealed not because those opposed to
drinking suddenly wanted a drink.

The nation recognized that the violence and crime caused by
prohibition were far worse than the problems of drinking and did
nothing to actually prevent people from drinking.

Taxation and regulation of alcohol are not without problems; alcohol
is a dangerous drug meant for responsible adult consumption, and
sometimes adults in a free society make mistakes. Einstein defined
insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting
different results.

Isn't 38 years of drug war insanity enough? Prohibition is an utter
failure by any measure.

People who want to use drugs can easily get them, and the turf wars on
the border and elsewhere are over who gets the profits.

Building prisons and fostering drug cartels are not a
solution.

Instructively, tobacco use is in decline precisely because it is taxed
and well-regulated. Americans must demand our leaders act rationally
to end the war on drugs, not escalate the insanity.

Jonathan Mull

Cary