TIME TO END PROHIBITION FOR DRUGS?

To the Editor:

Nicholas D. Kristof makes clear the price paid for the wrongheaded
"war on drugs." He notes Norm Stamper's experience as a young police
officer in San Diego in 1967 thinking that he could be "doing real
police work" rather than breaking down the doors of marijuana users.

I would argue that the failed war on drugs is worse than useless; it
has undermined the rule of law. In 1967 I was a young college student
encountering the drug culture on an East Coast campus. I had the
experience of having my friends arrested and getting midnight calls to
bail them out. At that time it was even illegal, where I lived, merely
to be in the presence of someone smoking pot.

I remember saying to myself that America was busy criminalizing its
youth for no good reason. Making common practice a criminal offense
undermines respect for the law.

The stupidity was obvious to me as a teenager, and to Norm Stamper as
a young cop 40 years ago. Where has our political and law enforcement
leadership been all this time?

Richard Poeton

Seattle