DRUG WAR FAILURE

Regarding Skip Johnson's May 30 plea for a sane drug policy: I feel
compelled to second the motion.

We fight cocaine and heroin-producing nations. We are killed and the
governments turn "leftist." They know the problem is not that they
supply drugs. It's that we demand them.

We declared a "War on Drugs" that was lost before it began. And we
state-sponsor the addiction of gambling that is as bad as any of the
other addictions, with the possible exception of alcohol.

Funnel (government) money into "treatment"? Well, there is no
treatment other than abstaining. Since modern medicine has as yet to
find any cure for addiction, treatment centers funnel clients into
12-step programs that have a low rate of success. Even anorexics are
told that they must admit that they are powerless over food.

If a person becomes addicted to something through "too much for too
long," then they must stop. There are chemicals in the brain that are
out of place during active addiction. These cause the intense craving
and tolerance.

They will go back where they belong in a month or maybe longer,
depending on the severity of the addiction. But there are new neural
pathways that are permanent, and if presented with the offending
behavior or substance, the chemicals will again be out of whack.
Tolerance and craving result, and it's back to square one.

This is not a "disease," it is a maladapted brain. Twelve-step
programs are useful in that they promote abstinence. Spirituality and
morality are good things to develop, but that is true for everyone.

Now we have a chance to observe an experiment in Mexico with the
legalization of a small amount of drugs. But I agree with Mr. Johnson
that the drugs should be sold through legal channels, just as we do
with alcohol and the state lottery.

What? No more senseless wars? No more exploding prison populations? A
new tax revenue source?

Allen West