CAMPAIGN AGAINST DRUGS BURNS NEEDED RESOURCES

Wesley Hughes ignores the clear and present dangers of the war on drugs in
his Oct. 31 letter, "Legalization of drugs threatens a disaster." In light
of America's latest war and catastrophe, it's long past time for a closer
examination of our past, current and future policies, both foreign and
domestic.

Can we afford an excessive, deadly and disastrous civil war, like the war on
drugs, which devours fully 50 percent of all our law-enforcement resources,
while terrorists, wishing Americans the gravest of harm, live, move and
train right here among us?

Are our national priorities skewed? Ask any postal worker, if the white
powder leaking from an envelope on their sorting table turns out to be
cocaine instead of some truly lethal biological agent, would they feel
relieved? In their situation, how would you feel? Thank God it's only
cocaine.

While Americans have chased each other for decades, dedicating phenomenal
amounts of our national resources, searching for all manner of illegal
plants, pills, powders and the like, our real enemies have literally invaded
us. We all continue to pay the price for our government's drug-war blunder,
and that's the real national tragedy.

Mike Plylar, Kremmling, Colo.