Salisbury News and Advertiser Editors Note {The following is an open letter
to Congressman Wayne Gilchrest}

Dear Honorable Congressman Gilchrest,

I have a few important question for you on the War on drugs. George Shultz,
Kurt Schmoke, Milton Friedman, William Buckley, the state of California,
and many others have called for an alternatives to the war on drugs,
including the legalization of currently illegal drugs. Mayor Schmoke poses
three questions to his constituents. Do you think we've won the Drug War?
Do you think we're winning the Drug War? If we keep doing what we're doing
now, in 10 years, will we have won the Drug War? I ask you to answer these
basic questions and the following questions.

1. We spend billions per year trying to eradicate drugs from this country.
According to DEA estimates we capture less than 10 percent of all illicit
drugs. a) How much do you think it will cost to stop the other ninety
percent? b) Is billions a year for a 90% failure rate a good use of tax
dollars?

2. White people buy most of the illegal drugs in this country. Yet, seventy
four percent of those receiving prison sentences for drug possession are
AfricanAmerican and other minorities. Is race a factor in the enforcement
of drug laws, and if not, how can we prove that to skeptics?

3. Has the cost of the War on Drugs in terms of billions of dollars,
blighted lives, jammed prisons, intensified racism, needless deaths, loss
of freedom etc., produced any significant change in drug availability or
perceived patterns of drug use?

4. Someone once said "Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that
it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and make crime out
of things that are not crimes." How do you respond to this statement?

5. It is estimated that 4050 million U.S. citizens have tried an illicit
drug at least once. How many of the millions of drug users do you feel we
must incarcerate in order to win the war on drugs?

6. Why does the government subsidize the right of adults to smoke tobacco,
which is highly addictive and causes over 400,000 deaths per year, while
decreeing that adults have no right to smoke marijuana, which is
nonaddictive and kills no one?

7. Drug use is an acknowledged fact of life in every prison in the country.
If we can't stop prisoner' use of drugs, how can we rationally expect to
stop average free citizens from using them?

8. Why has the Hoover Resolution, which called for an independent panel to
revue existing drug policies not been considered, accepted, or initiated? a
copy of the Hoover Resolution has been provided.

9. What lessons from alcohol prohibition lead you to believe that the
current drug war will end in victory?

10. Many important Americans and those on the attached marijuana petition
are opposed to the Drug War. Since no other US laws or policies are
inspiring such resistance, shouldn't we be listening to the many voices
which are saying that continuing the war on drugs may be a grave threat to
the longterm health of this nation?

11. At a time when working people are being asked to tighten our belts in
order to help balance the budget, how do you justify increasing the funding
to the drug law enforcement bureaucracy? Explain why supporting a failed
policy of drug law enforcement has a greater priority than student loans or
drug education programs.

12. What do you conclude from the experience of Hollanda country where
drugs fall under the jurisdiction of health agencies, not law
enforcementwhich has seen a decline in chronic use of hard drugs and
casual use of soft drugs since decriminalization?

13. If illegal drugs are so obviously harmful to people's health, why is it
necessary to put so many American adults in prison to prevent them from
using these drugs?

14. In drug policy discussions we hear a lot about the "message" that
certain policies may send to children. Are we not sending the message to
inner city children who witness illegal drug sales on their way to school
each day that they can make a lot of money selling drugs?

15. The modern drug war began in the 1960s, and for thirty five years it
has failed to reduce drug access to schoolaged children. Which is better
for America during the next 35 years, prohibition with continued
schoolaged access to drugs OR reform policies that ease prohibition but
reduce schoolage access?

16. Drug prohibition has been one of the biggest U.S. domestic policy
failures of the late twentieth century. Why is a perpetuation of this
failure more desirable than serious consideration of alternative policy
options?

17. Why should 270 million citizens continue to pay billions per year to
try to change the habits of millions of American citizens, considering that
this policy has not been able to change those habits in 82 years and at an
estimated cost of nearly one trillion dollars?

18. What gives the government the moral or legal right to authorize federal
and national guard troops to act against the people of the United States
who disagree with the government drug policies?

19. At what time in the future will we hear an apology for the discredited
drug enforcement policies of this time period?

20. Why do we support this social Vietnam, with our children as the victims
of our governments failed Drug War.

Sincerely

Robert R. Ryan
Salisbury, MD