WAR ON DRUGS SHOWS NO END

The loss of task force funds to the law enforcement community must surely
create a great deal of fear in economic times like these (The Daily News,
June 18).

The drug war is a cash cow, a means whereby rights are often
short-circuited, where drugs are sometimes planted or stolen and all too
often, lives destroyed over minor amounts of drugs. Informants, undercover
officers and district attorneys try their best to look tough on crime so as
to continue to reap the rewards of the "easy pickings" of arresting drug users.

In this time of great financial hardship for the national, state and local
governments, we must focus on crime that has a victim. In an
ever-increasing fashion, the drug war shows itself to be a corrupt cesspool
that has no chance of ever succeeding.

We've been hyping drug prohibition as the answer to our nation's problems
for decades on end. The hypocrisy of these failed policies is evident to
all but those whose mortgage payments demand that this war continue.

Dean Becker

President, Houston NORML; Community Liaison, Drug Policy Forum of Texas