DON'T HIDE HEADS IN SAND OVER DRUGS

Letter writer Roy Gray is wrong about one thing. Bakersfield does not
have a next-door neighbor with 9,000 drug-cartel murders every year.

Moreover, El Paso's status as a relatively crime-free community can
vanish anytime the drug cartels seek to extend their power there.

The problem isn't that El Paso's government is worse than
Bakersfield's, the troubles come from a lunatic drug crusade that has
a huge negative effect in every town and city in the nation-- a drug
war with a record of more than 90 years of failure.

It's worth remembering that the United States never had any "drug
crime" until after drug prohibition began. When drugs were legal,
addicts held regular jobs, raised decent families and were
indistinguishable from teetotalers. The demented criminal "junkie" is
a creation of drug prohibition.

The idea is to stop the Mexican drug cartels before they take control
of El Paso or Bakersfield the way Capone ruled Chicago in the 1920s.

Hiding heads in the sand will not keep El Paso safe.

Floyd Krautner

Bakersfield, Calif.