ATTEMPT TO LINK DRUGS, TERRORISM IGNORES FACTS

The Apr. 14 op-ed column by Kasey Warner confuses the drug war's collateral
damage with drugs themselves. This attempt to link drug use to terrorism
ignores the role of the drug war.

Just as liquor bootleggers terrorized U.S. cities with violent turf battles
during the Prohibition era, the armed factions waging civil war in Colombia
are financially dependent on the drug war. Afghanistan's Taliban regime
profited from the opium trade because of drug prohibition, not in spite of
it. The illicit drug of choice in this country is domestic marijuana, not
Afghan heroin or Colombian cocaine. Marijuana funds an untaxed cottage
industry, not terrorists. As the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of
West Virginia, Kasey Warner should know this.

Robert Sharpe,
Program Officer Drug Policy Alliance Washington, D.C.