DRUG WAR BREEDS VESTED INTERESTS

Thank you for publishing Mike Plylar's Dec. 5 letter, "America's drug
war tragedy." America's counterproductive war on drugs continues
because it has 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.
California 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 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
freedom will continue to shrink.

KIRK MUSE,
Vancouver, Washington