COLUMNIST IS WRONG ABOUT WAR ON DRUGS

I find Cynthia Tucker's liberal opinion column of June 25 on the
de-emphasis of the drug war by the FBI deeply offensive.

Painting a picture of the FBI as terrorists, likening enforcement to
prohibition and claiming we have been "wasting billions of dollars and
countless lives" is not only idiotic; it is insulting!

The fact that we cannot "win" the war on drugs is not a reason to quit
fighting. Should we quit fighting ignorance and close down the schools?
Should we quit prosecuting tax evaders because we can't catch them all?

"There is no great enthusiasm" for IRS agents either, but you don't hear
the liberals complain about the money they collect.

The truth is that people with sense in this country know the devastating
effects of illegal drug use and the toll in wasted lives and money that
would increase if we quit the fight. Drug use is almost never a
"victimless" crime inflicted on one's own body; the effects ripple out from
the user via the time and money lost, the damage to one's body that all of
us pay for through insurance, lost productivity at work, but most of all
through the damage to one's own mind.

That damage reaches out to touch everyone around the user.

Don't give up the fight!

John Reimers

Wheaton