DEA Agent Michael McManus

To the Editor,

Despite DEA Agent Michael McManus’ claims to the contrary drugs are purer, cheaper, and at least as available if not moreso than anytime since the current war on drugs began some thirty years ago. In 1910 officials estimated about 1.3% of the American public was addicted to drugs. When President Nixon called for the current war on drugs he said 1.3% of Americans were addicts. Today, after spending a trillion dollars and arresting millions the estimate is… 1.3%!

What has changed is the millions of lives ruined, not by drugs, but by drug prohibition. Thousands of students denied financial aid for college because of a drug conviction. Countless families torn apart, children orphaned, and entire neighborhoods ruined. Prisons overcrowded, courts clogged, police corrupted, countries invaded, civil rights taken away, all in the name of drug prohibition.

I hope Colgate will secure a speaker from ReconsiDer (www.reconsider.org) or Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (www.leap.cc) to present this side of the issue as well.

Nicolas Eyle, executive directorReconsiDer: forum on drug [email protected]