SHERIFF: U.S. DRUG POLICY A FAILURE

'We Need To Admit That,' San Miguel Lawman Says

San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters is taking his war against drugs on
the road.

"America's drug policy is a failure. We need to admit that and switch to a
system of careful control," Masters said.

Masters, a Republican turned Libertarian, was elected in 1979 in a county
that includes Telluride.

"The plan is not to have heroin stores everywhere, but a system where
people can clearly see all the drugs and know they don't need them," he said.

"The police and the politicians need to admit they've failed."

That's also the message in his book, Drug War Addiction: Notes From the
Front Lines of America's No. 1 Policy Disaster, published by Accurate Press
of St. Louis and due out this month.

The drug war, which reportedly costs every citizen $200 a year, has failed
to curb gang warfare, drug-related murders and robberies, although half the
inmates in federal prison are serving terms for drug offenses, he said.

"We are a drug culture. It's encouraged by ads for Prozac, Ritalin and
Viagra," said Masters, who tries to avoid all drugs, but occasionally takes
ibuprofen.

"I know that when I take something, it affects me."

Some drugs should be available, he said.

"Take medical marijuana. You have to be deathly ill from chemotherapy,
suffering from cancer and lying on the bathroom floor vomiting and crying,"
he said.

"How can we be so cruel?"

For all the millions of dollars spent and thousands of people jailed, the
same percentage of the population -- 1 percent -- is addicted to heroin and
morphine today as were in 1900, Masters said.

"If people like drug killings, meth labs, overdoses, police corruption and
drug-related crimes, then we have the perfect drug policy," he said.

"Thirty years ago, we had a little tiny drug problem.

"Now the quantity and quality are better, and it's all over the place."

At his talks on the subject in western Colorado, the public has been
supportive, Masters said.

"I've had people in their 80s drive hundreds of miles to my office after
they heard me speak just to tell me they agree," Masters said.