DRUG WAR POLITICIANS HAVE BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

Re: The War Isn't Working, editorial, July 28.

The war on drugs is more than a disaster; it's a man-made,
government-financed apocalypse. Hundreds of thousands of innocent
lives have been lost because of this mad war brought upon us by
holier-than-thou politicians.

The Post recently ran a column by Chris Selley (Power To The Drug
Lords, June 25), who wrote "It's no exaggeration to say that drug
consumers in the world's leading nations have blood on their hands."
This statement is false. Drug consumers have no blood on their hands,
the politicians do. By making drugs illegal, lawmakers around the
globe have indeed given power to the drug lords. They have handed a
giant, secure system of financing to criminal organizations world-wide.

Drugs should be legal, regulated, taxed, with programs in place to
help those ensnared in drug addictions. The ridiculous argument that
making drugs illegal is the best solution has been disproved time and
time again over the last century. Countless needless deaths in the
pursuit of the impossible goal of winning the war on drugs are the
dreadful evidence of this unavoidable fact.

Yes, it's the lawmakers who have blood on their hands. It is utterly
perverse to use police and military assets to combat what a health
problem -- addiction. All of their efforts have done nothing to
improve the situation, and for the numerous victims of this long,
failed war, have made it far worse.

P. Armstrong, Toronto.