Pubdate: Thu, 10 Jan 2002
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2002 Newsday Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsday.com/homepage.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author: Kirk Muse
Note: Title by MAP

THE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE WAR ON DRUGS

The counterproductive war on drugs continues because it has created a huge 
bureaucracy of people, institutions and industries with a vested financial 
interest in its continuation.

Today we have more prisoners than any other country in history, primarily 
because of our drug war. Those 2 million prisoners create hundreds of 
thousands of relatively high-paying government jobs, and government 
employees and others 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 prison population will 
continue to expand. And our personal freedoms will continue to shrink.

Kirk Muse,

Vancouver, Wash.
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MAP posted-by: Derek