U.S. WAR ON DRUGS STILL NOT EFFECTIVE

Regarding your Nov. 5 editorial, Infrared Scans: The U.S. has been using
infrared scans to detect marijuana grow-ops for decades. Despite the
high-tech war on drugs, marijuana remains America's No. 1 cash crop.

Simply put, the drug war distorts market forces such that an easily
grown weed is literally worth its weight in gold. The experience of
the former land of the free and current record holder in citizens
incarcerated suggests that eliminating civil liberties has little, if
any, impact on rates of use.

The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study reports that
lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European
country, yet the U.S. is one of the few Western countries that uses
its criminal justice system to destroy the lives of citizens who
prefer marijuana to martinis.

This intergenerational culture war should have ended with the Vietnam
war, but it's now seeing a revival under Bush. Canada should follow
the lead of Europe and Just Say No to the American
Inquisition.

Robert Sharpe,

Washington, D.C.