GUINTA'S COLUMN GUTSY

Editor: The Dec. 4 column by Peter Guinta was so impressive, so amazingly
to the point, that it is too bad it wasn't in Sunday's paper on the front page.

Guinta has pointed the finger at the emperor and asked him why he was
naked. Question America's war on drugs rhetoric? Question the morality
of people taking the edge off? Talk of taking a substance just to
explore a bit? Has he gone mad? Can he do this in a daily newspaper?

But seriously, does anyone really believe that America will ever be
drug-free? Heck, we can't keep drugs out of prisons where guards
patrol 24/7 and cavity searches are common occurrences. What makes us
think we'll ever have a drug-free community, park or school?

And why are some drugs good, and others bad? I love to hear people
rationalize their use of alcohol but turn around and call marijuana
users immoral and lazy. It's ludicrous.

Compare drug prohibition to the recent 9-11 Commission's investigation
of our $40 billion-a-year intelligence system's work. Certainly we
should be questioning the effectiveness of this complex part of our
government, but why aren't we holding the $69 billion-a-year drug war
to the same standard?

Noted conservative writer Thomas Sowell stated that the "difference
between a policy and a crusade is that the policy is judged on its
efficacy while the crusade is judged on how good it makes the
crusaders feel."

Thanks for the great insight, Mr. Guinta. I'll be reading more of your
articles from now on.

Mike Smithson

Syracuse, N.Y.