OUR UNWINNABLE WAR -- AGAINST DRUGS

Finally, a conservative newspaper acknowledges what everybody knows:
The drug war is an abject failure. But George Melloan points out it
is more than a failure of its objectives ("Musings About the War on
Drugs," Global View, Feb. 21). Its collateral damage is fostering
anti-Americanism throughout the globe, particularly in South America,
and at home it has trashed the Fourth Amendment and is filling our
jails with people whose only crime is to find pleasure in ways that
other people don't like.

Our nation once had the courage to right a wrong (alcohol
prohibition) and put the problem right back where it belongs: with
individuals and families.

David H. Padden

Chicago