DRUG TESTING

Prohibition Harming Our Constitution

I've read both Myron Von Hollingsworth's letter, "Drug testing should be up
to parents," Feb. 28, and the response by Tim Hodges, "Drug testing letter
draws a response," March Mar 3.

Perhaps Mr. Von Hollingsworth needs to explain in detail how prohibition is
destroying our constitution, and how through no-knock raids, seizure of
personal medical and legal papers and the use of "confidential" informants
(snitches, often convicted felons) who need not appear in court, we are
losing the rights our founders fought so hard to provide.

Or he could explain how sentencing disparities between crack and powder
cocaine unfairly targets the black community.

Mr. Von Hollingsworth could also go into detail on how the injustices (like
illegal seizures) perpetrated by the King of England on our colonists led
to the freedoms Mr. Hodges enjoys today and how our government is
perpetrating these same oppressive policies in the name of the war on
(some) drugs.

It is an easy equation: Prohibition equals failure. Always has, always will.

The only benefit to prohibition is to the criminals who gain overly
inflated, tax-free profits dealing unregulated commodities and to the
machine of enforcement and incarceration. Strange isn't it how the ``land
of the free" is also now the world leader in imprisoning its population.

Allan Erickson

Eugene, Ore.

Perhaps The Police Should Go Further

I'm writing about Tim Hodges' March 3 letter: "Drug testing draws a response."

Perhaps police should go a little further and require everybody to be
subject to random body searches, including body cavity searches. Obviously,
only those guilty of using or selling illegal drugs will object.

Since cancer and heart disease kill a lot more people than illegal drugs
and it is common knowledge that poor diet choices cause both cancer and
heart disease, perhaps the police should arrest and jail people who eat
cheeseburgers or french fries -- for their own good, of course. Nowhere in
the U. S. Constitution is there a right to eat unhealthy foods.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz