PRIORITIES MIXED UP

To the editor:

Guest columnist Clark Brittain was right on target ("Fault-based 'war on
drugs' continues to cause tragedy, " Dec. 17). However, Brittain didn't
mention why our war on (politically selected) drugs continues.

America's counterproductive drug war continues because it has created a
huge bureaucracy of people, industries and institutions with a vested
financial interest in its continuation.

Today the United States has more prisoners than any other country in
history, primarily because of our drug war. Those 2.1 million prisoners
create hundreds of thousands of relatively high-paying jobs. Many prison
guards with just a high school education make more money than teachers with
master's degrees. Obviously, our priorities are mixed up.

Government employees with drug war-created jobs will do anything and
everything in their power to make sure the drug war never ends. Until we
can solve this problem, our drug war and prisons will continue to grow. And
our personal freedoms will continue to shrink.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.