WAR ON DRUGS POINTS

In response to the June 10 editorial "Our View: More reasons to end
the drug war," there are several issues I'd like to address.

First, the term "war on drugs" is a misnomer: although that phrase
has roots back in the Nixon era over four decades ago, it is no
longer used by U.S. government officials, for a variety of reasons.

A primary reason is that the problem today is much larger than just
drugs: Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) active in our
region have expanded their "business" lines of operation into dozens
of other illegal activities, including weapons and human trafficking,
kidnapping, money laundering, extortion, agricultural/mineral/oil
theft, piracy, and even gruesome, medieval-like crimes such as "body
parts harvesting." Looking through the sole lens of drug trafficking
minimizes the bigger picture.

Second, joining the growing chorus calling for "decriminalization" of
drugs without considering the negative implications is irresponsible.
Many media outlets have jumped to cite the recommendations of the
Global Commission on Drug Policy's 2 June report this week, yet few
have attempted to challenge the wisdom therein (perhaps because of
the name recognition of some of its authors). A debate on
legalization is beyond the scope of this letter, but a balanced start
would be to look at some of the readily available information against
such a plan, such as http://www.jus tice.gov/dea/ongoing/legalization .html.

Moreover, what drugs should be legalized? Where do you draw the line?

Finally, the elephant in our national dispensary is the fact that
American demand for drugs is the real fuel behind this conflict.
Rather than decriminalizing drug use -- which would not address the
billions of our stressed economy already spent on drug-related health
care and social costs -- a better approach would be to improve
collective efforts at demand reduction.

Hollywood celebrities, political leaders, and yes -- newspaper
editors -- could assist this effort greatly by helping to stigmatize
and de-glamorize illicit drug use. And drug abusers would do well to
remember that the next time they snort a line, there is likely blood
on their hands that can be traced back to the streets of Juarez or Sinaloa.

Instead of criticizing government efforts to increase hemispheric
security and safety and calling for an end to the "war" by legalizing
drugs, we should be grateful to the Mexican security forces and U.S.
Law Enforcement and other agencies courageously fighting the TCO
scourge on our behalf.

Glen Butler

Colorado Springs