PROHIBITION NOT EFFECTIVE

Silly me, but reading "Kerlikowske describes how he'd approach
drub-czar job" [NW Thursday, April 2], I couldn't recall the word
"czar" in our Constitution. I thought that was a word for an
autocratic Russian ruler. Have we strayed that far from our founding
fathers' idea of limited government?

Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske mouthed the tired cliches of
drug prohibition, a complete failure since it began in 1913. He's
going to cut demand, reduce supply, etc. This hasn't worked for 96
years, so one wonders why he thinks it's going to work now.

Thomas Jefferson and the other geniuses who invented this country
never suggested that any drugs should be illegal. To the contrary,
they said that everyone should have the right to "life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness" unless they were doing something "injurious
to others." Then, and only then, did the government have the right to
intervene.

So we've gone from geniuses to bureaucrats masquerading as czars. Shame on us.

- -- Brian Templeton, Des Moines