Pubdate: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 Source: Hamilton Advertiser (UK) Copyright: 2008 Scottish & Universal Newspapers Limited Contact: http://www.hamiltonadvertiser.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4848 Author: Kirk Muse Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n768/a08.html DON'T FOLLOW US--WE'RE LOST Sirs, I'm writing about: Police step up war on drugs" (7 Aug 08). The American led war on drugs was doomed from the very beginning. Regardless of the money put into the anti-drugs program, one cannot nullify the basic supply and demand law of economics. As long as people want to purchase recreational drugs and they are willing to pay a substantial price for them, somebody will produce the drugs and somebody else will get the drugs to the willing buyers. This is guaranteed. The war on drugs has transformed the United States into the most incarcerated nation in history. With less than five percent of the world's population, the U. S. has more than one fourth of the world's prisoners. In other words, one out of every four prisoners in the world in locked in an American prison, thanks primarily to America's counter-productive war on certain (politically selected) drugs. The United States government is in no position to give any other nation advice on how to run an anti-drugs campaign. No other nation has wasted more resources on fighting drugs and no other nation has imprisoned more citizens for drug law violations than the U. S., yet no other nation has been less successful in solving its narcotics problem than the United States. My advice to the rest of the world: Carefully observe the U. S. narcotics policy and then do the opposite. Don't follow us--we're lost. Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz. U. S. A. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin