AMERICA'S WAR ON DRUGS ISN'T WORKING

We need to support Senator Jim Webb's investigation of the prison
system. But, we don't need to wait for a commission's report on why we
imprison so many of our citizens, one out of 31 adults, the worst rate
in the world! According to data supplied to Congress' Joint Economic
Committee, a third of our prisoners are druggies, and 60 percent of
those are non-violent users, not sellers. If we decriminalize
marijuana, we will have room to imprison the banksters and other
serious offenders. Plus, many gangs would disintegrate, the border
wars would end and we could tax drugs to provide rehab for the addicted.

I am not a user, but I'm sure that the "drug war" is a hoax. I don't
think the country was going to "pot" before the Mariuana Tax Act of
1937, which seems just to have been enacted by an ill-informed
Congress to save Harry Anslinger's job as head of the Federal Bureau
of Narcotics after Prohibition ended. He mounted a propaganda campaign
about the evils of marijuana, and Congress was frightened into
prohibiting cannabis without a bit of medical evidence.

Jeannemarie Simon

Morongo Valley