FAILED WAR ON DRUGS THREATENS OUR RIGHTS

A recent letter, "Testing first line of defense against drugs,"
(AC-T, April 5), notes the war on drugs to be "a dismal failure,"
with jails and prisons "likely our least drug-free zones." A
reasonable person might conclude the eradication of drugs to be
unattainable and recommend moderated policies, but this author
insists we have yet to "get serious" about drug use, and proposes
ubiquitous random drug testing "with consequences at all levels of
our society" (banishment to the drug-infested prisons, I suppose).
This ghastly idea might be dismissed as extremist, but the
politicians and bureaucrats who have fashioned our drug policies are
as afflicted with denial, delusion and magical thinking as this
writer, who mocks the notion that forced drug testing in schools
might be "a poor civics lesson." These opportunists regard personal
liberty and its embodiment in our laws as impediments to be trampled
and shoved aside in their stampede toward an illusory goal. Yes it is
time to "get serious," put substance use into proper perspective, and
recognize that the war on drugs poses a grave threat to our
traditions of free will, liberty and rights. In this regard, DARE is
indeed a poor substitute for civics class.

Mett Ausley,

Lake Waccamaw