DRUG POLICY FITS HISTORIC MODEL

This is regarding Niki Payne's outstanding column: "New pot raids
call for new leadership" In the Dec. 12 issue of the Daily Forty-Niner.

Beyond just the use of marijuana as medicine, why do so many of our
politicians want to keep a natural herb that has never been
documented to kill a single person, a criminalized substance? Why do
apparently intelligent people want to arrest and jail other people
who use or sell an easy-to-grow weed?

Perhaps to understand their position, we should study the history of
U.S. alcohol prohibition. The notorious gangster Al Capone made most
of his illegally obtained money from alcohol prohibition. Capone
often bragged that he "owned" the city of Chicago. Obviously, he
didn't own all of the city of Chicago; however, he had most, or all,
of the politicians and police who ran the city on his payroll.

Capone was a successful businessman and it's not unreasonable to
suspect that the drug cartels of today are following his business
model. It's also not unreasonable to suspect that the drug cartels
may have many high-level politicians and police officials on their payroll.

The type of politicians the drug cartels would have on their payroll
are those who advocate the continuation of the status quo of drug
prohibition, which is making the drug cartels so fabulously wealthy.

I'm not saying that any specific so-called "drug warrior" is on the
payroll of the drug cartels -- it's just a little suspicious. I'm
just a little suspicious of the motives of all of the drug-war cheerleaders.

- -- Kirk Muse,

Mesa, Ariz.