TIME TO END CANNABIS PROHIBITION

Thank you for your editorial supporting Toni Preckwinkle's call for an
end to the wasteful spending fueling the war on drugs ["Toni
Preckwinkle targets waste in drug war," Thursday]. Alcohol prohibition
failed, yet America's war on drugs keeps on going while yielding the
same results -- corruption and gang violence. Moreover, the negative
social costs of alcohol are far greater than cannabis.

Violence along the Mexican-American border is similar to the violence
that occurred on the Canadian-American border during
Prohibition.

Cannabis prohibition is the foundation for the war on drugs, but it is
slowly being eroded by politicians like Preckwinkle who know that if
this country wants to move forward we need to stop treating addiction
with the criminal justice system and start looking toward other
alternatives.

Dan Linn