Ref: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1504/a04.html

POLICY IS DESTRUCTIVE

I wanted to thank you for publishing the refreshingly honest letter by P.
O' Rourke (Oct. 2). His letter painfully describes one of the problems with
our drug war: It criminalizes otherwise law-abiding citizens. And it does
so at a huge expense to society.

The majority of drug users are not criminals or nonproductive members of
society. In fact, they are law-abiding family people who have jobs and
don't have any problems until the government interferes in their life and
labels them as criminals.

How many more billions of taxpayer dollars do we have to take from
education and other critical programs to build prisons and fund drug task
forces before we realize that this misguided attempt to reduce drugs is
counterproductive and downright destructive to our society?

Our "leaders" need to find the courage to end the insanity known as the war
on drugs before another generation is forced to endure its scourge.

Scott Russ, Baton Rouge, La.