PROHIBITION FAILS AGAIN

Re: "No end in sight in Mexico cartel war -- Turf battle in Juarez
may take years to play out, authorities say," Monday news story.

If newspapers still were setting lead type as they did in the old
days, I would have advised you not to melt down but to keep the
headline, "No end in sight in Mexico cartel war," for regular,
frequent future use. That head will be useful into the foreseeable
future unless this country comes to its senses and takes control of
drugs, their import and their sale through state or federal channels,
as we have alcohol.

The 18th Amendment to the Constitution was the nearest this country
ever approached mass idiocy, increasing alcoholism and alcohol
poisoning rates and creating a new gangster class that ruled our major
cities for decades. Now we are duplicating that mistake and expecting
a different result.

The drug war and its cost of billions has deprived no adult or school
child of his drug of choice while packing our prisons with non-violent
offenders and providing a modern-day WPA for federal bureaucrats. It's
time we faced the inevitable truth and turned what is a national
burden to us and our neighbors into a tax-producing benefit for
society, instead of perpetuating its most destructive elements.

Ronald M. Wade, Rockwall