DRUGS AND BUREAUCRACIES

I'm writing about your thoughtful editorial: "War on drugs needs new
strategies" (June 21). The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is a
huge bureaucracy. And like all bureaucracies, the goal of the
bureaucracy is its continuation and expansion.

The heads and sub-heads of bureaucracies get paid in direct proportion
to how many employees work under them, not according to how well they
perform their mission. The DEA is not an exception. DEA agents have a
vested financial interest in making sure that marijuana is never
legalized or decriminalized. Marijuana is the foundation of our
so-called war on drugs and, therefore, the foundation of the DEA.

If marijuana were ever legalized, regulated and controlled like
tobacco and alcohol, we would need far fewer DEA agents and other law
enforcement personnel. Therefore, many DEA agents would be unemployed
or washing cars for a living. Obviously, they don't want that to happen.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.