DRUG MONEY

It may be true, as Pamela White writes in "OD at the DOC" (News, Nov. 21)
that the war on drugs is "an enormous waste of money." It may be true that
"about $50 billion in taxpayer money could be saved if the war on drugs
ended." However, while I would be willing to see that money put to better
use elsewhere-or simply returned to the citizens who earned it-White can't
have it both ways.

That is, if the war on drugs were ended, I for one would certainly not want
to pay for state-run "treatment" programs for drug users.

And even if the war continues, I agree with Colorado's decision to spend
the least amount of any state on such programs.

Ending the war on drugs would simply make clearer the fact that an
individual bears responsibility for using or not using drugs. If drug use
were no longer illegal, the state would be leaving it as a matter of
personal choice. Therefore, the individual drug user would also accept the
burden for treatment, if at some point he or she desired to quit.

Drug use is not a clear-cut "medical" problem, as Christie Donner asserts
in White's article-not in the way that cancer is a medical problem or
malaria is a medical problem. You can't "quit" cancer by an act of will.
You can't decide to "stop using" malaria.

Drug use is entirely voluntary. Coke powder does not ambush the noses of
hapless victims. Ecstasy pills do not insinuate themselves into the mouths
of unwilling people.

And a balloon filled with heroin did not climb into Charlene Marquez's
stomach by itself.

Up until six years ago, my father was a smoker for 53 years. Then he had an
emergency triple bypass. Since he got out of surgery, he has not smoked a
single cigarette. Had he tried to quit before the bypass? Yes, several
times. Had he succeeded? No.

So why was he suddenly able to stop using a drug (nicotine) that is-if we
are to believe the medical pundits-as addictive as heroin? In a word,
motivation.

It's not a medical matter; it's a matter of motivation.

So sure, why not grant people complete freedom to make their own choices
with respect to drug use? Just don't ask taxpayers to foot the bill for any
negative consequences of such a choice.

Eric Johnson

Boulder