DRUG WAR IS STUPID, FUTILE

To the editor:

I read with amazement Byron D. Cagle's letter ("Stupid to back
legalization," Aug. 15) criticizing the editorial calling for a more
rational drug policy.

He lost me from the beginning. He attempted to excuse the abject failure of
the drug war by saying "I suppose we could also say, "Well, there are
25,000 murders every year and murder is a difficult thing to prevent, so
let's just decriminalize murder." It's hard to take seriously anyone who
can't tell any moral difference between pot smoking and murder.

He then descends completely into hysteria, claiming that other countries
"doctor" their drug statistics to conceal the failure of rational drug
policies. Evidently suffering from a mistaken belief that Canada has
legalized drug use, he claims that 25 percent of kids in British Columbia
go to school stoned. How does he know this, if Canada is doctoring its
statistics?

I could go on, but it just gets sillier. Mr. Cagle and others who fear that
Americans might be too free should try to remember that ending prohibition
will not end drug abuse and addiction. But it will do away with all the
problems that have resulted from the drug war: Billionaire drug lords,
corruption of our most important institutions and the shameful fact that we
Americans have put more of our own people into jail than any other country
on Earth.

The drug war is stupid, destructive, futile, and un-American. The sooner
it's over, the better.

Ray Aldridge

Ft. Walton Beach, Fla.