U.S. HAS SPENT BILLIONS BUT STILL IS LOSING DRUG WAR

Re Fred Grimm's Dec. 12 column, "Drug kingpin's capture will not end
an old war". America has been losing its so-called drug war for more
than 80 years. Every Marketing 101 course rightly asserts that every
market will be served. Where there is a ready buyer, someone will show
up with a product. Period.

This phony war simply mollifies moral-values types who need to have
visible proof that their children are protected from every perceivable
threat. But they only succeed in making the market more lucrative by
hindering supply. It was reported recently that 33 percent of New York
State's inmates, roughly 22,000, are serving multiyear sentences for
drug-related offenses. On average, it costs about $20,000 a year to
imprison one inmate.

And for what? Will they be able to rejoin society upon release? Will
they have any new marketable skills or have their records expunged so
that they can get a decent job? Not likely, the moral-values bunch
will see to that.

To survive, they will return to what they know. People who refuse to
adequately care for our nation's neediest children and families will
willingly fund ex-felons' incarceration at a steeper price. Morality
has never been successfully legislated. It's the illusion of moral
control that zealots cherish, not the reality.

Chris S. Fennell, Pompano Beach