KLRU
Stop the Anti-Drug Crusade
RECEIVED Mon., July 14, 2008
Dear Editor,
Re: The air marshals in Houston facing drug charges: America's deranged drug war is duplicating the conditions Al Capone bragged about when he said, "Half of the cops in Chicago are on my payroll." Then it was an alcohol ban and now it's drugs, but the results are identical.
Police corruption has increased 500% in the last five years. Nearly all of these crooked cops were involved in drug crimes. Public officials from air marshals to beat cops to federal judges have been caught dealing drugs.
If we do not stop this drug crusade, which is a colossal failure anyway, it will destroy honest policing in this country the way it has already done in Mexico and other countries.
It's worth remembering that Eliot Ness never put the bootleggers out of business. Repeal and a regulated market for alcohol did that. The murder rate dropped 50%, and the crime wave associated with alcohol stopped after repeal. We will see similar results when drug prohibition is repealed. (See: “Did Alcohol Prohibition Reduce Alcohol Consumption and Crime?” www.druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults.htm and www.druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults.htm#a2.)
Re: The air marshals in Houston facing drug charges: America's deranged drug war is duplicating the conditions Al Capone bragged about when he said, "Half of the cops in Chicago are on my payroll." Then it was an alcohol ban and now it's drugs, but the results are identical.
Police corruption has increased 500% in the last five years. Nearly all of these crooked cops were involved in drug crimes. Public officials from air marshals to beat cops to federal judges have been caught dealing drugs.
If we do not stop this drug crusade, which is a colossal failure anyway, it will destroy honest policing in this country the way it has already done in Mexico and other countries.
It's worth remembering that Eliot Ness never put the bootleggers out of business. Repeal and a regulated market for alcohol did that. The murder rate dropped 50%, and the crime wave associated with alcohol stopped after repeal. We will see similar results when drug prohibition is repealed. (See: “Did Alcohol Prohibition Reduce Alcohol Consumption and Crime?” www.druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults.htm and www.druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults.htm#a2.)
Ralph Givens
Daly City, Calif.
Daly City, Calif.
