DRUG WAR PRIORITIES TWISTED

TO THE EDITOR:

Larry Brittain ("Your Views," Dec. 23) was right on the mark about our
failed drug war. However, he didn't mention the reason our war on
(politically selected) drugs continues. America's counterproductive drug
war continues because it's created a huge bureaucracy of people, industries
and institutions with a vested financial interest in its continuation.

Today the U.S. has more prisoners than any other country in history,
primarily because of the drug war. Those 2 million prisoners create
hundreds of thousands of relatively high-paying government jobs. Many
prison guards with just a high school education make more money than
teachers with master's degrees. Obviously, our priorities are mixed up.

Government employees with drug war-created jobs will do anything and
everything in their power to make sure the drug war never ends. Until we
can solve this problem, our drug war and prisons will continue to grow. And
our personal freedoms will continue to shrink.

Kirk Muse,
Vancouver, Wash.