SEARCHES FAILING TO STOP DRUG USE

Regarding the Sept. 4 article on the seizure of $22,000 by Ridgeland police
after a traffic stop, in which no drugs were found, the financial
incentives created by civil asset forfeiture laws create a very dangerous
precedent. Police can legally confiscate cars, cash and homes without even
bothering to charge owners with a crime. This is a clear abuse of power.
Vague allegations of drug trafficking hardly justify the risk of turning
protectors of the peace into predators. The drug war threatens the
integrity of a country founded on the concept of limited government. The
steady rise in police searches on public transit, drug-sniffing dogs in
schools, and suspicionless drug testing have led to a loss of civil
liberties in America, while failing miserably at preventing drug use. Based
on findings that criminal records are inappropriate as health interventions
and ineffective as deterrents, a majority of European Union countries have
decriminalized marijuana. Despite marijuana prohibition and perhaps because
of forbidden fruit appeal, lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S.
than any European country. The United States now has the highest
incarceration rate in the world, in large part because of the war on some
drugs. At an average cost of $25,071 per inmate annually, maintaining the
world's largest prison system can hardly be considered fiscally
conservative. It's not possible to wage a moralistic war against consensual
vices unless privacy is completely eliminated, along with the Constitution.
America can either be a free country or a "drug-free" country, but not both.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A., program officer

Drug Policy Alliance, Washington, D.C.