END THE WAR ON DRUGS

Your editorial, "Bad business: U.S. throwing money away fighting this
aspect of drug war" (May 21), clearly reveals why the prohibition of drugs,
has, will, and can never work, and why we should never consider connecting
the war on terrorism to this other continuing policy disaster, the drug war.

If we fight the war on terrorism like we've fought the war on drugs, can we
expect the same results?

Will terrorists multiply exponentially, be more powerful than ever, cheaper
to deploy and far deadlier than before? Can we expect terrorists to flood
across our borders in an unstoppable deluge? How many more prisons will it
take to hold all these terrorists, when we already lock up more of our
people than any nation on earth, thanks to the drug war? Will the few civil
liberties remaining after the war on drugs, now fall prey to the war on
terrorism?

Apparently the definition of "terrorists" will evolve and change on the
whim of anonymous bureaucrats, just as the next so-called drug epidemic is
as predictable as the annual government budget battles and the appointment
of another drug czar.

If our loss of freedom and civil liberties determines the health of our
republic, thanks to the war on drugs, our nation is on life support, and
this latest endless war could quite likely drive a stake through her heart.

It's time to end the war on drugs, before it ends us.

Mike Plylar
Kremmling, Colo.
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Throwing Away Money

I agree with what you're saying in the article on drugs. I also think that
we should take another look at our policy on sentencing "nonviolent" drug
offenders. In today's laws on drug offenses, and the sentencing on these
offenses, a nonviolent druggie, with a clean record prior to this offense,
will receive a heavier sentencing than a murderer. Violent offenders should
get all that is allowed by law. So, why is it we spend millions of dollars
on these druggies in our prison system and only thousands on these violent
murders and sex offenders? Just what are we thinking? Talk about throwing
money down the tubes.

Name withheld