WHY WE RESIST THE DRUG WAR

America is prime for credible drug law reform at every
facet.

As a deputy attorney general with Pennsylvania's Drug Strike Force,
Mark Serge conveniently overlooks reasons why people deride law
enforcement's effort to enforce the nation's drug laws ("Freedom vs.
the drug war," Letters, Aug. 5).

After decades of history, it's clear that drug laws are discredited
and arguably unconstitutional. America is prime for credible drug law
reform at every facet.

Remember when police used to say, "If you don't like the laws, change
them" and "I don't make the laws; I just enforce them"? Police don't
recite those anymore because police and prison guards unions that
support perpetuating and expanding the war on drugs gain job security
by keeping them.

When police and the industrial prison complex cite historically
discredited information to support their war on some drugs, including
the plant cannabis (example: DARE programs), there will be increased
contempt for police by society.

The original Prohibition was clearly bad for the people, bad for
police and good only for the underground economy, which brought us
organized crime and Al Capone.

The problem is the discredited laws and the people who support
them.

Stan White
Dillon, Colo.